THE UNFOLDING LIFE 

ANTOINETTE ABERNETHY LAMOREAUX 














Copyright _ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
















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The Unfolding Life 


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The Unfolding Life 


A STUDY OF DEVELOPMENT 

WITH REFERENCE TO 

RELIGIOUS TRAINING 


BY 

ANTOINETTE ABERNETHY LAMOREAUX 

li 


WITH INTRODUCTION BY 

MARION LAWRANCE 


The Religious Publishing Company 

(not incorporate) 

192 MICHIGAN AVENUE CHICAGO 





LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies rfeco=v(Xi 

WAY 13 1908 

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JLHSS A AXCi NO. 



COPYRIGHT, 1907, 

BY 

Religious Publishing Company 


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LC Control Number 



tmp96 025756 












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TO 

My Precious Father and Mother, 
in whose daily ministry 

f 

I have seen the beauty and learned the meaning 
of Ghristian Nurture, 
this book is affectionately dedicated. 



CONTENTS 


Chapter Page 

I Fundamental Principles of De¬ 
velopment . 13 

II Early Childhood. 35 

III Early Childhood— Continued . . 56 

IV Early Childhood— Concluded . . 75 

V Childhood— Six to Twelve . . . 103 

VI The Junior Age—Nine to Twelve 129 
VII Adolescence. 155 


VIII Middle and Late Adolescence . . 173 






INTRODUCTION 


Having read with much care the proof 
sheets of this book, I am prepared to say 
three things about it, and it gives me 
pleasure to say them here. 

1. The book is well named, “The 
Unfolding Life.” Turn which way 
we will, we see life unfolding all about us, 
and yet how faintly are its mysteries 
understood! And is it not the one thing 
above all others, which teachers, mothers, 
fathers and all of us, need to understand ? 
It is well that our attention has been 
called to this most vital of all themes by 
a book, whose very name compels atten¬ 
tion to its content, and whose content is 
but its name in fuller treatment. 

2. The book is well written. Such 
books as this should be read slowly and 
pondered well; but this book by its 
fascination will tempt one to read too 
rapidly. Its line of argument is logical; 
its diction is as pure as the bubbling 


INTRODUCTION 


stream; its truths are evident and com¬ 
pelling. It presents the purest psychol¬ 
ogy stripped of all mystifying techni¬ 
calities, and clothed in language which 
even a child can understand. The 
reason for this is plain. It is the “Beaten 
Oil” drawn from the rich and ripe ex¬ 
perience of one of the best students of 
childhood and teachers of children in 
our land. 

3. The book is well timed. Teachers 
are seeking now as never before to un¬ 
derstand the soil in which the living seed 
of God’s Word is to be cast. Nothing 
can be more important than this. The 
author deals largely with the every day 
problems of the average home and Sun¬ 
day School, thus rendering the highest 
service to the great army of ordinary 
teachers and mothers. While this book 
will be hailed with joy by all such, it 
will nevertheless command a place by the 
side of the highest grade books on the 
subject. There never was a time when 
any book on any subject was more 
greatly needed than this book is needed 
now. It would be a boon indeed to 


INTRODUCTION 


every home, and to every Sunday School 
as well, if all teachers, mothers, yes, and 
fathers too, would read and re-read 
“The Unfolding Life.” 

Marion Lawrance. 
Chicago, March, 1908. 


FOREWORD 


The greatest thing in the world is a 
human life. The greatest work in the 
world is the helpful touch upon that life. 
Here and there an artist in soul culture 
is found at the task, but the many are 
unskilled and the product of the labor is 
far from a manhood “perfect in Christ.” 

In dealing with things, the vessel 
marred in the making can be set aside or 
fashioned anew, but a life is for eternity. 
The faulty work can not be undone. The 
mistake can never be wholly rectified, 
for life never yields up what is given it. 
The look, the word, the invisible atmos¬ 
phere of the home and church, the 
sights and sounds of all the busy days en¬ 
ter the super-sensitive and retentive 
soul of the child and are woven into life 
tissue. Character has no other from 
which to fashion itself. Therefore its 
final beauty and worth will be determined 


12 


FOREWORD 


in large measure by the quality of the 
material which entered in. 

It is with earnest desire to help some 
parent or teacher in the divine work of 
soul nurture, that this volume is offered. 
There is no attempt to add to knowledge 
in Child Study or Psychology, but rather 
to interpret certain of their fundamental 
facts and principles with reference to Re¬ 
ligious Training. 


CHAPTER I 


FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF 
DEVELOPMENT. 

Row upon row they stretched, fifteen 
acres of regal chrysanthemums, roses 
pink, yellow, white and red, fragile lilies of 
the valley, carnations and vivid orchids, 
no two alike, yet all expressions of plant 
life. Skilled gardeners from England and 
Germany were busy with these exquisite 
flower children, watering, pruning and 
training upon slender cords, that every 
bud might come to perfect unfolding. 
The laws of the plant world and the 
law of each individual flower were well 
known to them. They knew that all re¬ 
quired sunshine and soil, warmth and 
moisture, but in varying amount. The 
chrysanthemums grew in the sunlight, 
while only a few days before cutting 
could the lilies of the valley be released 
from their darkened beds. All needed 
cultivation but not in the same way. 
Some were massed, while yonder were 

13 


14 THE UNFOLDING LIFE 

thousands of carnations, and every one 
sole monarch of its own little garden 
plot. Painstakingly and completely, day 
after day, the needs of each frail life were 
met, until the flowers grown in this great¬ 
est of Canadian greenhouses have become 
renowned far across the border for their 
unsurpassed beauty, coloring and size. 

The quiet walk between the glorious 
masses of bloom that October afternoon 
brought a vision of a greater Child garden, 
with an infinite variety of human plants to 
be tended, every one with its own individ¬ 
uality, needs, possibilities and a divine 
purpose for it cherished in the heart of 
the Heavenly Gardener. The work of 
nurture He has given to parents and teach¬ 
ers, longing unspeakably that it shall be 
so wise and tender that His plan for every 
life may be realized. 

But as the earnest soul takes up the 
task, it seems so bewildering. '‘Three 
little ones in the home, and every one 
different! Ten boys in the Sunday 
School class and no two alike! Where 
does nurture begin? How is it carried 
on?” 


PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT 15 


Though the differences in human lives 
are countless, there are certain great 
likenesses. All have life, needs, possi¬ 
bilities; they all grow and develop in the 
same general way. From these common 
likenesses have been formulated a few 
principles which are as helpful to a child 
gardener as a knowledge of the laws of 
plant life to one who nurtures roses 
and carnations. Their understanding is 
not dependent upon physical parenthood. 
God will interpret the meaning to any 
one whom He calls into fellowship with 
Himself in the matchless work of soul 
culture. 

I. The First Principle deals with the 
nature of life—What is it ? Some answer 
must be given in order to arrive at an aim, 
a method, and an inspiration for work. 
If a child is only a beautiful figure upon 
which to display dainty garments, the 
mother has a plain pathway marked out 
for her. If a boy is a capacity to be 
filled, or a machine to grind out facts or 
dollars, the teacher’s course of action is 
clear. 

God’s conception of life is surely great- 


16 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


er than t^ese, yet He never gave a defini¬ 
tion. Jesus said it is more than meat, 
that it is worth more than all the world, 
that it does not consist in abundance of 
things, that it is eternal, but He nowhere 
tells us what it is, for He can not. It is a 
part of God. He can only make us un¬ 
derstand it in any wise by giving its char¬ 
acteristics and values. Perhaps these 
may come to us more clearly through con¬ 
sidering first what life is not. 

1. Life is not merely “plastic clay” 
to be moulded, or a “block of marble” to 
be hewn according to the will of the 
sculptor. 

This poetic conception emphasizes 
rightly the tremendous power of environ¬ 
ment and personality in shaping character, 
but it is really a dangerous half truth. If 
the child were a block of marble, he would 
be no different from the dead, inert 
lump that lies in the studio awaiting the 
will of the sculptor. They would both be 
things. But a child has life, and the 
difference between life and thing lies in 
an inner power or activity which life 
possesses and uses when and as it will. 


PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT 17 


This activity has to be reckoned with. 
Sun and rain and earth can not make a 
plant grow if it does not use its own mys¬ 
terious inner force upon them. No sort 
of influence can affect a life, if the life 
does not respond to it. This response 
will be either receiving or rejecting the 
influences that come, working with or 
against them. Assuredly this is a con¬ 
dition very different from “plastic clay.” 
Two great tasks, therefore, are included 
in the work of nurture: the first, to see 
that all that comes to plastic life from the 
outside is what it ought to be; the second, 
to somehow arouse the power within to 
vigorous effort upon the best things. 

2. Life is not a “pure white page,” 
even in its beginning. 

There is here also a half truth, and an 
error. Life is unstained by guilt in its 
early years. It comes innocent from the 
hand of God, but fingers long since van¬ 
ished have traced lines that mar the per¬ 
fect whiteness. There are tendencies 
away from God as well as toward Him, 
and these are not the result of environ¬ 
ment. Environment will cultivate tend- 


18 THE UNFOLDING LIFE 

encies but can not implant them. Fa¬ 
voring conditions will make an apple tree 
produce magnificent apples, but they will 
never implant in it any tendency to 
bear roses or produce thorns. Failure 
to recognize the fact of two sets of tend¬ 
encies in the life will lead to a fatal mis¬ 
take in nurture. Christ will be presented 
only as an Example and not as a Savior 
also, thus setting before a life its pattern 
and leaving it impotent to reach it. 

3. A life in its beginning is not a ‘ ‘ little 
man.” 

The element of truth in this conception 
is perhaps less than in either of these pre¬ 
ceding. It is indeed true that child life 
is that out of which man life is to come, 
but the difference is more vital than that 
of inches or strength. The bulb shelters 
a lily life, but the difference is greater than 
size. The chrysalis will bring forth the 
butterfly, but the two are not identical. 
Childhood will unfold into manhood, but 
each has its own characteristics and needs, 
differing in largest degree. 

The physiologist tells us that it would 
be hard to find many important points 


PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT 19 

beyond the most fundamental laws in 
which the infant and the adult exactly 
resemble each other. (Oppenheim.) In 
bodily proportions, in actual composition 
of bones, muscles, blood and nerves, in 
size and development of the organs, the 
differences are wide. 

The psychologist proves that there is 
equal variance in mental conditions. 
The man has a sense of responsibility to 
his neighbor and to God, unknown to 
child life. He thinks and reasons and 
judges as the child mind can not. His 
whole outlook upon life is opposite from 
that of the child. 

We recognize this difference in caring 
for the body, and the babe is fed on milk 
and the boy on meat. But the difference 
must be recognized as equally impor¬ 
tant in caring for the soul. Just as meat 
is meat, whether minced or uncut, and 
therefore unsuited for a tiny life, so 
doctrine is doctrine, whether stated in 
words of one syllable or four, and equally 
unsuited to a beginning life. Paul refers 
to those who need milk and not solid food, 
spiritually, because they are “without 


20 THE UNFOLDING LIFE 

experience of the word of righteousness,” 
clearly indicating a difference in the kind 
of instruction, not the amount. The 
subject matter must be adapted to the 
life, not merely the number of syllables, 
the method of teaching, as well as the 
length of the lesson. Without this careful 
adaptation of food and method, the 
developing life will be under-nourished, 
and the most vigorous maturity be im¬ 
possible. 

But these negative statements only 
safeguard against mistakes by telling us 
what to avoid. A real working basis 
must be found in a positive principle. 

The study of an unfolding life at any 
time in its development always reveals 
two supreme facts, possibilities peculiar 
to that period, and self activity. The 
First Principle of development combines 
these two facts and gives us our nearest 
approach to a definition. 

“Life is a bundle of possibilities and 
self activity.” 

The block of marble has possibilities, 
so has molten metal and a tube of 
paint; but life has possibilities plus inner 


PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT 21 

power. The three imperative “Oughts” 
for the parent or teacher are herein sug¬ 
gested. 

First, he ought to be able to recognize 
each possibility as it appears. 

Second, he ought to know how best to 
deal with it. 

Third, he ought to know how to stimu¬ 
late the activity to greatest endeavor. 

II. The Second Principle states the 
relation of nurture to the unfolding of 
these possibilities. 

“The direction and degree of develop¬ 
ment are largely determined by nurture.” 

Every possibility in a life, unless it die 
out, must develop either upward or down¬ 
ward, toward the best or worst. This 
development, whether in a plant or a 
boy, depends on what is given the life to 
work with and the use that is made of it, 
or, stated in more dignified terms—the 
development is a result of influences that 
come to a life and the response made to 
them by activity. The sort of influences 
and the sort of response given will deter¬ 
mine the sort of development. When 
some one is consciously endeavoring to 


22 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


make both outer influences and the inner 
working of the life the best possible, it is 
called nurture. 

The responsibility that grows out of 
this thought of nurture is almost crush¬ 
ing, yet its opportunity is sublime. To 
make a boy strong for his life work, be¬ 
cause the right word was spoken at the 
critical moment, the encouragement given 
just when his purpose was faltering, to 
help a girl reach glorious young woman¬ 
hood because the inspiration came as she 
stood at the parting of the ways—surely 
this, in a very real sense, is working with 
God. The story of almost every life of 
marked power, reveals a human touch 
at the cross roads. Is this one meaning 
in the Master’s words, “Inasmuch as ye 
did it,” or “Inasmuch as ye did it not?” 
“I would have been on the foreign 
mission field seven years ago,” said a 
splendid young man, “had not my Sun¬ 
day School teacher laughed at me when 
I told him my new bom desire. I expect 
to go now, but what of those seven 
years?” 

If the home and the church should be- 


PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT 23 


gin at once to obey God’s command to 
nurture the children “In the chastening 
and admonition of the Lord,” with all 
that means, the next generation would 
see the kingdoms of this world given to 
Christ and the advent of the King. 

III. The Third Principle defines the 
work of nurture. 

“Nurture must care for both nourish¬ 
ment and activity.” 

1. The Watch Care over Nourishment. 

Nourishment is the general term for all 
that upon which the life feeds. It is 
given both consciously and unconscious¬ 
ly and is absorbed in like manner, but in 
its effect upon the life, the unconscious 
nourishment has greater power. 

(1) Unconscious Nourishment. 

(a) The first factor in unconscious 
nourishment is personality. 

Just as truly as the physical life is 
nourished by life, so is the mental and the 
spiritual. Standards of living, ideas, a 
sense of values, opinions, do not come 
from text-books but fathers and mothers. 
The lesson from the printed page may 
fail to gain entrance, but the lesson from 



24 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


the teacher’s life, never. This explains 
the success of many a humble mother and 
the failure of many an intellectual teach¬ 
er. It is at the very heart of all work 
for another. 

Its first message is a personal one. It 
tells the worker that his life is more com¬ 
pelling than his voice; that the Word 
must again become flesh to give it author¬ 
ity. j It tells him further that if he is to 
be the bread of life to growing souls, his 
own pasturage must not be things, but 
in reality, the living Christ. 

The other message applies to his work. 
While every life that touches his will al¬ 
ways carry away something from the con¬ 
tact, the most helpful human life can 
never suffice for another’s nourishment. 
Each soul needs the complete Christ for 
itself. The amazing thing among par¬ 
ents and teachers is their unconcern over 
His absence from the lives of the children. 
Years pass, and precept, lesson and ad¬ 
monition are given, while Christ, the Life, 
is not definitely and personally offered. 
“According to their pasture so were they 
filled.’’ Is not this the explanation of so 
many meagre lives ? 


PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT 25 

(b) The second factor of unconscious 
nourishment is environment with its 
subtle atmosphere. 

The importance of environment is 
found in this great law, that life tends to 
become like that which is around it. So 
strong is the tendency that the only es¬ 
cape from conformity lies in real struggle. 
This a little child rarely puts forth, and an 
adult not always, for it is far easier to 
follow the line of least resistance and ‘‘be 
like other people.” 

Growing out of this power of environ¬ 
ment comes the problem of all philan¬ 
thropic and religious work—how to over¬ 
come the influence of harmful surround¬ 
ings. The need is obvious when the 
surroundings are vicious, yet the home 
does not need to be in the slums to injure 
a growing life. It only needs to be Christ- 
less. This may seem a very radical state¬ 
ment, but it is nevertheless true. Arrest¬ 
ing the highest development is as truly an 
injury as giving to life wrong direction. 
Has not a plant been positively injured 
when its most beautiful possibilities are 
unrealized because of unfavoring con- 


26 THE UNFOLDING LIFE 

ditions? Is not a body, undersized and 
stunted because of lack of fresh air 
and food, as truly deformed as though the 
back were bent? Has not that soul re¬ 
ceived the most cruel of all injuries, when 
its divinest possibilities can never be at¬ 
tained either because of spiritual starva¬ 
tion or misdirection? The Church and 
the Sunday School attempt to furnish a 
counteracting environment, but it is 
infrequent and brief. The only power 
which can render this temporary, religious 
environment more effective in influen¬ 
cing character than a harmful, permanent 
one, is the Divine. A church building or 
a Sunday School session of itself, can 
accomplish little, placed over against a 
home. Methods of grading and forms of 
worship are impotent in themselves. It 
is only a living Christ, actually vitalizing 
the lesson and the sermon and the plan 
of work Who makes them efficacious. 

If this be so, then the teacher who goes 
to the home itself to press the claims of a 
personal Savior on the father and mother, 
has after all reached the heart of the prob¬ 
lem of environment. 


PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT 2? 

(c) The third factor of unconscious 
nourishment is the Superhuman Power. 

This thought has been suggested in 
connection with personality and environ¬ 
ment, but it demands separate emphasis. 
It is not an easy thing in the stress of the 
visible to remember the greater power of 
the Invisible. The most earnest Chris¬ 
tian worker is sometimes overwhelmed by 
discouragement or, again, unduly con¬ 
fident because of the perfection of system 
and method, forgetting that God knows 
no obstacle, and that He alone can put 
life into a plan of work. 

But though God uses men and methods, 
He does not always so approach a life. 
He deals directly with a soul through the 
influence of the Holy Spirit, and life re¬ 
ceives its most holy nurture in those 
sacred hours. Therefore, the highest 
service permitted a Sunday School teach¬ 
er is to pray effectually for the brooding 
Spirit to rest upon the pupils in his class. 
The mother can do nothing which shall 
mean so much for the precious life in her 
arms as learning, herself, the secret of pre¬ 
vailing prayer, for, “If we ask anything 


28 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


according to His Will, He heareth us; and 
if we know that He heareth us, whatso¬ 
ever we ask, we know that we have the 
petitions which we have asked of Him.” 
Therefore, 0 Lord, “Teach us to pray.” 

(2) Conscious Nourishment. 

This is definite instruction so given to a 
life that it is appropriated. A large part 
of attempted instruction is never taken in. 
“I have told you over and over again,” 
says the despairing mother, but telling 
does not always involve receiving. Plac¬ 
ing nourishing food before the boy does 
not necessarily mean stronger muscle and 
purer blood. He must eat and digest it. 
Teaching, to be nourishment, requires 
first, careful adaptation of the subject 
matter, then presentation in such a way 
that the mind will voluntarily reach out, 
lay hold upon and assimilate it. God 
again gives the key to real teaching in the 
word “engraft.” Its process in the phys¬ 
ical and mental world is identical. First, 
the delicate adjustment, then a vital 
union, and lastly, new life resulting. 

2. The Watch Care over Activity. 

We have considered nurture in its work 


PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT 29 


of supplying the best nourishment to 
growing souls, and now its care for activi¬ 
ty must be noted. Since the subject will 
be discussed more fully in a succeeding 
chapter, only the necessity for the nurture 
will be considered here. This necessity 
appears in the four-fold result of activi¬ 
ty. 

(1) New Experiences. 

This is the first result to the child from 
ceaseless movement of hands and feet and 
eager eyes. In early life he is not con¬ 
scious of seeking the new experience, he 
only wants to be in motion. In later 
life, energy is definitely put forth for 
some desired end. But whatever the 
motive, experiences helpful or harmful, 
according to the sort of activity, result, 
and they enter character at par value. 

(2) Growth or Increase in Size. 

Activity is necessary before anything 

given to the body or the soul can become 
a part of life. Food must be acted upon 
by the digestive, circulatory and assimila¬ 
tive organs to make it bone and muscle 
and nerve. The mind must think upon 
the fact in order to add it to the store of 


30 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


knowledge. The heavenly vision must be 
obeyed before Christian experience is 
enlarged by it. 

But there is another aspect of this same 
thought. Just as truly as activity must 
precede assimilation, so truly does assim¬ 
ilation follow activity. It may be stated 
more simply in this way. Nothing can 
become a part of the life until it has been 
acted upon; when it has been acted upon 
it can not be taken out of the life. When 
digestion is finished and the food is bone 
and muscle, it can not be withdrawn. 
When the idea has been thought in or 
acted upon, it has by that process become 
a part of the life, and though it may fade 
from memory its influence is abiding. 

(3) Development or Increase of Power 
and Skill. 

Every muscle exercised gains greater 
freedom. Every knotty problem mas¬ 
tered means increased mental ability. 
Every victory means greater power in 
resisting temptation. Whatever the ac¬ 
tion, whether good or bad, helpful or 
harmful, greater skill and power in that 
direction follows it. 


PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT 31 


This other very important fact needs 
to be clear, that no amount of energy 
put forth for another will mean develop¬ 
ment for him. He must exercise his 
own arm for strength and solve his 
own problem. Development only comes 
through the effort of each individual for 
himself; hence the best teacher is the one 
who can rouse the pupil to the greatest 
endeavor. 

(4) Habit Formation. 

It is impossible to act, physically, men¬ 
tally or spiritually, without making it 
easier to repeat the action, and soon ease 
passes to tendency, then tendency to com¬ 
pulsion, and life is in the grip of a habit. 
This is the inevitable outcome of activity, 
until “nine-tenths of life is lived in the 
mould of habit.” 

If it be true that habit is “ten times 
second nature,” the importance of direct¬ 
ing activity toward the formation of right 
habits needs no discussion. 

IV. The Fourth Principle of unfold¬ 
ing life deals with its crises. “The crucial 
points in development are those times 
when new possibilities begin to unfold.” 


S2 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


The life comes from God complete in its 
possibilities, but at the beginning all is 
in germ. As life progresses, develop¬ 
ment of these possibilities proceeds, but 
it is not uniform. The body acquires 
ability to control the larger muscles before 
it can adjust the finer and more complex 
ones, as instanced in the child’s ability 
to walk before he can thread a needle. 
The mind is able to imagine before it can 
reason clearly. The feelings center on 
self before they reach out to the world 
around. As every new possibility begins 
to develop, two serious facts must be 
remembered: 

* (1) Direction must be given in the 
beginning before tendencies are fixed. 

A beginning is always a time of easy 
adjustment and flexibility. Business 
corporations can readily alter a course of 
action before a policy has been estab¬ 
lished. The nurseryman can easily secure 
the straight trunk of the mature tree in 
the yielding sapling. The law is just as 
true when it touches human life. The 
trend of any possibility is determined 
largely in the beginning of its unfolding. 


PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT 33 


After that time has gone by, conditions 
are practically fixed, and he that is un¬ 
just will be unjust still, and he that is 
holy will be holy still. 

(2) Future strength and vigor are 
largely determined in the beginning of 
development. 

It is well nigh impossible to overcome 
the effect of early neglect. If the cul¬ 
ture of the growing stalk is passed over, 
the com in the ear can not be full. If the 
bodily needs of the boy are unmet, he 
can not reach his full development as a 
man. If his budding intellectual life, 
his awakening feeling life, or the delicate 
unfolding of his spiritual life is neglected, 
a complete, rounded out maturity is im¬ 
possible. A starved childhood is always 
the prophecy of a stunted manhood, while 
life nourished in its beginning foretells 
vigorous maturity. 

V. The very important question now 
arises, “How may these crucial times be 
recognized?” The answer is given in the 
Fifth Principle. “A new interest always; 
accompanies an awakening possibility.” 

The increasing love of a story discloses 


34 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


a growing imagination. The passionate 
hero worship of a boy’s heart reveals the 
fact of a budding ideal. The interest in 
clubs and desire for companionship tell 
of awakening social feelings. Life is 
always the exponent of its own need to 
one who cares to know, and it further re¬ 
veals what should be given it, and how. 

VI. The Sixth Principle has already 
been touched upon in the preceding 
discussion, but it needs the emphasis of 
special statement, because of its import¬ 
ance. “ Development is from within, 
out, through what is absorbed, not from 
without, in, through external application 
without absorption.” 

If development were a matter of ex¬ 
ternal application, the post would grow 
and the stone and the stick, because they 
have earth and air and moisture around 
them. If it came from without, in, the 
most admonished child would be the best, 
the most talked to pupil the wisest, but 
the reverse is usually true. That which 
adheres simply to the surface of rock and 
child is veneer, which the testing cir¬ 
cumstance will rub off. Only that which 


PRINCIPLES OF DEVELOPMENT 35 

is assimilated is of any value to the 
life. 

These are the great principles revealed 
in the development of life from infancy 
to maturity. The factor of human con¬ 
tact appears in every one. The question, 
“What is my touch upon this unfolding 
life?” can not be evaded. The stone¬ 
cutter takes the marble and hews out the 
rough block; the sculptor finds its hidden 
soul. The artisan takes the canvas and 
the common sign appears; the artist 
makes it immortal. But God gives life 
to parents and teachers to fashion. Will 
hands clumsy and unskilled, miss the 
perfect beauty, or the touch of master 
workmanship bring forth a likeness to the 
Christ? 



CHAPTER II 

EARLY CHILDHOOD 

The first period of life, Early Child¬ 
hood, includes the years from birth to 
about six or, in Sunday School phra¬ 
seology, the “Cradle Roll,” from birth to 
three, and the “Beginners,” from three 
to six. 

It is a temptation to note at length 
the marvelous achievements of a little 
life in its earliest years, as it comes, 

“Out from the shore of the great unknown, 
Blind and wailing and alone, 

Into the light of day. 

From the unknown sea that reels and rolls, 
Specked with the barks of little souls, 

Barks that were launched on the other side, 
And slipped from Heaven on an ebbing tide.” 

The wealth of material, however, clus¬ 
tering around each period of developing 
life is so great that selection must be 
made. Therefore only those facts illu- 
37 


38 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


minating the chosen theme of religious 
nurture will be considered. 

The baby's world is a “big, blooming, 
buzzing confusion," according to James, 
but gradually, cosmos emerges from 
chaos. The senses, clouded at first, be¬ 
come clear and active. Adjustment and 
voluntary control of the larger muscles 
are secured. The art of walking is 
mastered, and the great feat of learning 
a language practically unaided, is well 
under way. The awakening mind learns 
to know certain objects and simplest re¬ 
lationships within a very limited sphere, 
and through ceaseless activity, new ex¬ 
periences are constantly coming in to the 
soul. 

Guided by instinct and impulse, re¬ 
sponding to any wind that blows, sen¬ 
sitive and retentive as the plate of a 
camera, 

“Just a-yeaming 
To be learning 
Anything at all,” 

can any religious nurture be given to 
this tiny little bundle of possibilities? 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


39 


Manifestly, it will not be through pre¬ 
cept and admonition, for they are mean¬ 
ingless, yet never will life be more open 
to the influences of impression and at¬ 
mosphere than at this time. The child 
can not understand their import as they 
come, but he will feel them. He does 
not understand love, but he feels it. He 
can not comprehend personality, but his 
restless little body grows quiet in the 
tender arms of a strong father. He re¬ 
sponds to the fretfulness or gentleness of 
the mother, the noisy confusion or peace 
of the home. These multitudinous im¬ 
pressions become his life, though he can 
not grasp their meaning. 

Just as surely does he drink in impres¬ 
sions which have the Divine element. 
What they speak to him only God knows, 
but some message is theirs. The picture 
of the “Good Shepherd,” of “Jesus Bless¬ 
ing Little Children,” of the “Madonna 
and Child,” perform their silent ministry 
to his soul. He is peculiarly sensitive 
to the reverence and worship in lofty 
music. In the evening tide of a Sabbath 
day, a father was seated at the piano, 


40 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


while the two older children stood near, 
and a wee one of two and a half years 
listened from his mother’s arms. The 
songs used in Sunday School were sung 
one after the other, and then came the 
baby voice, “Papa, sing about Dod.” 
“Do you mean, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the 
Lord’?” he asked. “Yes,” was the 
answer, and in the hush of the twilight, 
the worship of the children blended with 
the worship of the angels, and who shall 
say they did not all behold the Father’s 
face? 

The nurture of these years is as silent 
as that of the dewdrop upon the blade 
of grass, but it is as real. God’s voice is 
the still, small voice that ever speaks in 
quietness. The stillness of the moment 
at the mother’s knee, the prayer repeated 
in the reverent, low tone of the mother’s 
voice, the earnest prayer for him offered 
in his presence, the Christ-like living in 
the home, all carry their holy influence 
to his soul. He feels God, without know¬ 
ing Him. But there shall come a day 
when the Voice that has gently called 
him will be recognized, and he will say, 
“Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


41 


But general nurture must be supple¬ 
mented by the definite nurture of each 
growing possibility. Though the princi¬ 
ples underlying this careful watch care 
and training are stated in connection 
with Early Childhood, they are applicable 
to every succeeding period where the 
same power is developing. 

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY 

The most marked characteristic of the 
entire period of early childhood is physi¬ 
cal activity, manifesting itself largely in 
restlessness. The nervous force which la¬ 
ter will be used in complex mental pro¬ 
cesses, now seeks expression through 
hands and feet and tireless body. 

In early infancy activity is entirely 
purposeless and unwilled, merely the in¬ 
stinctive movement of every part of the 
body. Gradually, however, through the 
contact with different objects brought 
about by his restlessness, the baby learns 
to reach out for what he wants, and pur¬ 
pose in the activity begins to appear. 
Later, play affords an outlet for the con¬ 
stant flow of this pent-up power, and the 


42 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


child lives over again those activities of 
the busy life around which appeal to him. 

From the previous discussion of activ¬ 
ity, we know that the child is bringing 
about far-reaching results, all unconscious 
to himself, through this never ceasing 
restlessness of every waking moment. 
He is growing, through the kneading pro¬ 
cess of constant movement; he is develop¬ 
ing freer use of his muscles; he is building 
new experiences into character, and he is 
forming habits of life. How then may 
this great force be nurtured so that great¬ 
est results shall follow? 

The law of activity must first be under¬ 
stood. It has been very succinctly stated, 
“Activity must act, explode or cease to 
generate.” 

If it cease to generate entirely it means 
death, for every organ of the body is us¬ 
ing it. If it lessen in amount, it means 
lowered vitality, and indicates illness or 
abnormal conditions in some way. The 
over-strained mother who says to a little 
one of this age, “I wish you could keep 
still for five minutes,” does not realize 
what she is expressing. It has been de- 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


43 


monstrated in scientific tests, that the 
perfectly normal child under six can 
keep absolutely still but few consecutive 
seconds, therefore the desire could only be 
fulfilled through some disturbed physical 
condition which would lessen the amount 
of life itself. Any diminution is every¬ 
where felt, for the same activity which 
impels hands and feet, impels also the 
hungry senses, the eager curiosity and 
every part of a growing mental life. For¬ 
tunately for the child, God’s finger is on 
the dynamo of his life, and as long as He 
wills the activity can not cease to gener¬ 
ate. 

There are but two alternatives left, an 
action or an explosion, for activity can 
no more be confined than steam in an 
engine. If the explosion has occurred, it 
has resulted from successful repression. 
The stopper, “Don’t,” has been inserted 
in the last opening through which the 
nervous force could expend itself, and 
after a moment of dangerous calm, the 
inevitable occurs, and the happiness and 
peace of the entire home is for the time 
destroyed. The result is just as sure as 


44 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


that of confining an expanding gas, while 
its disaster is wrought in the mental and 
moral as well as the physical realms. 
Fortunately again for the well-being of 
the child, it is difficult to secure the last 
outlet, so fertile is his busy brain. 

But without the explosion, the results 
that come to a child from a policy of re¬ 
pression are very serious. Briefly stated, 
they are first, irritability and nervous¬ 
ness. The refinement of cruelty is dealt 
to a little child, compelled by superior 
force to act contrary to God’s law for 
him and “Keep quiet.” Activity which 
should normally be expended, when con¬ 
fined, reacts upon the cells of the body so 
that soon there are physical reasons be¬ 
yond the child’s control for his nervous¬ 
ness and crossness. 

Second, Friction, in which defiance and 
stubbornness appear. The severest test 
which could be imposed upon adults 
would be a constant and apparently 
arbitrary thwarting of their desires. Is it 
to be wondered at that a little, unreason¬ 
ing life which hears “don’t” by the 
scores of times from morning till night, 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 45 

grows rebellious, vindictive and obstin¬ 
ate? 

Third, Unhappiness and a sense of 
alienation. Sympathy between two 
persons is impossible when they are at 
cross purposes, and happiness which is 
God’s gift to childhood can never be real¬ 
ized when souls are out of touch. Further, 
discouragement and consequent loss of 
incentive to effort must inevitably over¬ 
whelm a little life that never does any¬ 
thing right. 

Fourth, weakened will and character. 
This is the most serious result of all. One 
of the great principles already stated 
makes it clear that development can come 
only through the activity of the individ¬ 
ual himself. If the child is constantly 
withheld from doing by the word “don’t,” 
he can not reach the fullest development 
of character. Furthermore, character is 
not built negatively but positively. A 
building can never be erected by merely 
keeping out of it all unworthy material. 
There must be an actual putting together 
of brick and mortar, and the great truth 
is evident that whenever a place is filled 


46 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


by the good, the bad is in that very act 
kept out, whether in buildings or charac¬ 
ter. The motive back of many a “don’t” 
is worthy, and often there may be no 
alternative but to instantly check an 
action, but for the effect on character 
building there is a more excellent way 
than repression. It lies in the expression 
suggested in the law of activity, but ex¬ 
pression under direction. 

Some parents realize the necessity of 
allowing the child’s activity to be expend¬ 
ed, but fail to see the other side of the 
matter, namely, that while activity means 
development, the sort of development 
that follows will depend on the character 
of the activity. It is important that a 
boy’s energy be given an outlet, but it is 
more important whether it make of him 
a gentleman or a hoodlum. The guid¬ 
ance or neglect of the activity will de¬ 
termine which it is to be. 

Too frequent emphasis can not be put 
upon the fact that every outgoing activ¬ 
ity traces a little deeper some pathway 
that tends toward a habit. The mistake 
is often made of thinking that habits can 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


47 


be formed only by “taking thought.” 
It is true that some of the finest habits of 
life are built into character with painstak¬ 
ing effort, but untidiness and selfishness 
and irreverence and all their kin reach 
fullest unfolding in the thoughtless out¬ 
flow of activity,when no one is attending. 

But activity, untrammeled, means 
more than wrong habits. It means law¬ 
lessness and undisciplined character. 
The child who has learned no higher 
authority for his acts than his own errat¬ 
ic whims, has laid good foundation for 
future disregard of the laws of man and 
God. 

The converse of all that has been said 
concerning both repression and neglect 
of activity characterizes its wise direction. 
When the child, ignorant and unskilled, 
hears a voice saying, “This is the way, 
walk ye in it,” his willing response means 
activity going out in right channels or 
the formation of right habits. It means 
a dual joy for him, the joy of activity it¬ 
self and also the joy from the approval 
and sympathy of the parent or teacher. 
Under encouragement he puts forth 


48 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


greater effort, which means constant de¬ 
velopment of greater power. Yet more 
than all, it means that he is learning the 
greatest lesson of early life, obedience. 

Obedience is only activity under law. 
It begins with submission to the will of 
the parent, but when at last it is a response 
of the whole life to the will of God and 
rendered of voluntary and loving choice, 
it has reached its highest unfolding. This 
is the goal toward which all nurture of 
activity must be directed, else no life is 
safe after it goes out from the restraints 
of the home. In the heart of the parent 
who is a seer, the mere closing of the 
door or putting away of the toy in re¬ 
sponse to a request is not the thing most 
desired, for that is external and true 
obedience is internal. The father, pos¬ 
sessing insight, wants the heart as well as 
the hand of the boy to close the door or 
put away the toy. Without this, no vic¬ 
tory is gained. The act itself is the least 
of all. “Sacrifice and offering thou didst 
not desire. * * * Then said I, Lo, I 
come. * * * I delight to do Thy will, 
0 my God; yea, Thy law is within my 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


49 


heart.” This attitude of voluntary 
heart acquiescence to the will of another 
is never the product of compelling power, 
else God would force His children to 
obey, since obedience is the thing He 
most desires. Force can sway the hand 
but not the heart. Paul, whose tireless 
activity spent itself out under the direc¬ 
tion of his Master, discloses the great 
secret when he says, “The love of Christ 
constraineth us.” The eternal Father 
says to His child, “I have loved thee with 
an everlasting love; therefore with loving 
kindness have I drawn thee.” 

It is by love, by words of approval, by 
patient encouragement and help, and also 
by experiencing the consequences of each 
act, whether joyous or painful, that the 
child is led to follow the one who points 
out the path for his activity. Soon he 
faces the words, “right,” and “wrong,” 
and though knowing only at first that 
“right” is the thing permitted, and 
“wrong,” the thing denied, he feels the 
difference in the results of each. Then he 
learns that the pathway of the thing called 
“right,” is not an arbitrary one laid 


50 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


down by mother or teacher, but the path¬ 
way traced by God Himself, wherein we 
all must walk, parent and child, teacher 
and pupil alike. When with dimmest 
understanding but loving heart, he first 
sets faltering foot in that path, because 
he catches glimpse of its shining light, 
that “shineth more and more unto the 
perfect day,” the one who has nurtured 
him will hear God’s voice speaking to his 
soul, “Well done, good and faithful ser¬ 
vant.” 


HUNGRY SENSES 

Hungry senses, directed in their quest 
by a hungrier mind, mark the second 
great characteristic of early childhood. 
These are the channels through which the 
world around comes into the life of the 
child. The sights and sounds of the phys¬ 
ical realm, when carried beyond the por¬ 
tals of the senses, under the marvelous 
transmutation of God’s touch, become 
ideas. The process, in so far as its secret 
has been revealed, will not be discussed 
at this point, but rather the relation of 
these impressions to character. 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


51 


In early years the senses are undis¬ 
criminating as far as the real worth of an 
impression is concerned. The vulgar 
picture will be admired as quickly as the 
beautiful one, if its colors are attractive. 
The impure word is caught as readily as 
the pure. There is no standard of values; 
even taste is not yet formed, and eyes and 
ears hungrily reach out for anything to 
satisfy their voracious appetite. Each 
sensation which is reported to the mind 
through the senses and intricate nervous 
system, supplies an idea, embodying it¬ 
self. It is with these that all the think¬ 
ing of the child is done, these rouse his 
feelings and prompt his actions and, 
finally, mean character. Manifestly, 
then, his life can be no better than the 
things he sees and hears, handles and 
tastes, for he lives in a world of sensations 
and not of ideas. This was the thought 
of the mother who said, “I never wash my 
little children’s faces at night, and put 
them to bed all sweet and clean on the 
outside, that I don’t think that I would 
give all the world if I could somehow get 
inside and wash that too.” But the inner 


52 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


cleansing from the influence of sight and 
sound no hand can perform. God for¬ 
gives sin, but even His touch does not 
remove the impression of the picture or 
the word which memory has put away. 
The only hope of beautiful character lies 
in bringing to the unfolding life helpful 
influences which shall be stronger in their 
power than the vitiating. When some 
definite counteracting impression is need¬ 
ed, it is in the sacred confidences of the 
c twilight hour, and at the confessional of 
a mother’s knee, that it can be most 
effectively given. 

Aside from the moral import of the im¬ 
pressions, there is a vital relationship be¬ 
tween the senses and the quality of the in¬ 
tellectual life. Since knowledge can 
come to the child only through his senses, 
the amount of knowledge, as well as its 
sort, depends upon the story the senses 
tell. If they be dull, the knowledge is 
meagre and life has little with which to 
build. If they be defective, the im¬ 
pression is either falsely reported or not 
at all. Tests have revealed the amazing 
fact that over fifty per cent of children 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


53 


have imperfect sight and hearing. This 
means that the first idea given through 
eye or ear may be wrong; consequently 
each subsequent idea growing out of it is 
wrong, at least in part, and ultimately, 
false conceptions and mistaken courses of 
action appear, all traceable directly to 
the ear that did not hear accurately and 
the eye that told a false talc. 

There is also a direct connection be¬ 
tween defective senses and conduct. Nat¬ 
urally, the boy who can’t see the black¬ 
board, pays no attention to the work 
placed upon it, and the child partially 
deaf, disregards the words of the teacher. 
The overwhelming number of personally 
observed cases of difficult discipline, dis¬ 
closed the unvarying fact of defect, either 
in the senses or the body itself. There¬ 
fore a teacher or parent should be very 
sure that the “bad boy problem” is not 
physical rather than moral, lest cruel 
injustice be done. 

While the dull senses call for limitless 
patience, that life be not pitifully narrow, 
and the defective senses call for wise and 
remedial attention, the normal, keen, 


54 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


wide-awake senses exact the most from 
the conscientious parent or teacher. Eter¬ 
nal vigilance is the price of beautiful 
building material for the character in 
such an unfolding life. Each day adds 
to the store put away in the brain, to re¬ 
appear later. “We must soon be care¬ 
ful what we do before the baby,” says the 
mother who half grasps the connection 
between impressions and character build¬ 
ing, not realizing that the work is already 
far under way, that foundations are in. 
Nurture of the senses must begin with the 
first dim reaching out for impressions, 
that only the best may enter, that right 
tastes may be formed, and self control in 
this fiercest battle-field of life be learned. 


CHAPTER III 


THE PERIOD OF EARLY CHILDHOOD— 
Continued. 

As we come to consider the soul of the 
child, using this term not in its religious 
sense, but to include all of life but the 
physical, we understand that in reality 
it is indivisible. There are no separate 
parts or faculties possessing unique pow¬ 
ers such as reasoning, remembering, feel¬ 
ing or willing. The whole soul remem¬ 
bers, feels and wills. However, for the 
sake of clearness and convenience, when 
it is reasoning, we are accustomed to 
speak of soul power in that direction as 
reason, or imagining as imagination or 
willing as will. 

We must understand, also, that the 
soul of the child is as complete in its possi¬ 
bilities as the soul of the adult, only they 
are undeveloped. As life and environ¬ 
ment grow more complex, new needs 
arise and these new needs awaken soul 

55 


56 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


power in a new direction. The expression 
“I didn’t know he had it in him,” is fre¬ 
quently heard, as some one has shown 
unexpected ability under sudden pres¬ 
sure of circumstances. Every brain has 
millions of undeveloped cells, scientists 
affirm, signifying that every life is in¬ 
finitely poorer than it might be. The 
need is something to arouse its latent 
power. 

CURIOSITY 

The little child is at first in a world of 
total mystery. Sights, sounds, sensations 
from contact come to him and all are un¬ 
intelligible. As they are carried to his 
brain, somewhere, somehow, they awaken 
a desire to know their meaning, and as the 
tiny fingers are extended toward objects 
the soul is reaching also. This soul reach- 
c ing is curiosity, one of God’s most gracious 
and wonderful provisions for the life, but 
so often its significance is misunderstood. 
If there were no curiosity, there would 
never be any eager attempt to explore 
the field of knowledge. The disciplined 
spirit of inquiry that makes for the 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


57 


world’s progress, is only a fuller develop¬ 
ment of the untutored and disastrous 
effort of the child to find out about things. 
We forget that before there can be a 
flower there must be a bud. Before there 
can be a scientist who shall pick the rock 
to pieces to learn its secret, there must be 
a child who picks a doll to pieces to see 
what is inside. The pathos of childhood 
is its bowed head and mute lips under the 
blow and the stinging word, because judg¬ 
ment is passed, not on motives, as the 
parent demands for himself, but on the 
external appearance of the act. We 
look into our Heavenly Father’s face, out 
of the wreckage and mistakes of a day, 
and say, “I meant to do it aright, but I am 
so ignorant,” and we are comforted that 
He looks at the heart and understands. 
Can we be less pitifully tender toward His 
little ones? 

There are three marked manifestations 
of curiosity during this period of child¬ 
hood. 

(1) Questions. 

In the wordless years of earliest life, 
mysteries around the child can receive 


58 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


only partial solution. But the day comes 
when language gives him a key whereby 
to unlock the doors, and he begins to ask, 
“What is it,” then “Why,” and “Where,” 
and “How.” This questioning period 
commences about the age of three, and 
is in strong evidence for some time. 
The answers involve for the most part 
nouns and verbs, not adjectives nor ad¬ 
verbs, signifying that the child is not yet 
ready for abstract qualities and char¬ 
acteristics. Simple facts only are sought 
at first. Questions concern the names of 
things, activities connected with them, 
causes and ends and the age-long mystery 
of origins. 

Passing by reluctantly any further dis¬ 
cussion of this most fascinating subject 
of children’s questions, four great facts 
bearing upon nurture must be noted. 

1. Repression of the sincere question¬ 
ing of a child tends to weaken his effort 
to acquire knowledge. 

2. Questions reveal a need felt by the 
child, and are a guide to the kind of in¬ 
struction he is ready to receive. 

3. A question not only reveals a need, 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


59 


but is also an assurance that the instruc¬ 
tion given will be received, for what the 
mind wants to learn, it will learn. 

4. A sincere question demands a sin¬ 
cere answer. 

This statement would seem superfluous, 
if its need were not apparent in questions 
dealing with the origin of life. God gives 
to the mother, first, the sacred privilege of 
investing these most holy mysteries with 
purity and sanctity, and through this con¬ 
fidence drawing the life of the child into 
closer fellowship with her own. If the 
opportunity be cast away through the 
evasive or untruthful answer, the facts 
may come with a taint upon them which 
can never be wholly removed. 

(2) Mischief. 

(3) Destructiveness. 

A word must suffice upon these other 
manifestations of curiosity. When truly 
understood, they reveal only an eager 
mind trying to obtain new experiences to 
add to knowledge. It is not total deprav¬ 
ity that leads a child to pull the articles 
from the workbasket, or tear the book, or 
demolish the toy. He merely wants to 


60 THE UNFOLDING LIFE 

see the object under as great a variety of 
conditions as possible, to find out all he 
can about it. It is identical with the 
spirit of the scientist who essays new com¬ 
binations to see what the results may be, 
only in its inception it is crude and un¬ 
skilled. 

Assuredly, instead of dealing harshly 
with an instinct which in later years may 
make the whole world richer, it would be 
wiser to give it legitimate outlet. Toys 
and blocks which admit of being taken 
apart and readjusted may begin the train¬ 
ing of an Edison or a Stephenson. 

INTERESTS 

Just as in the realm of the physical, 
appetite for one sort of food may be great¬ 
er than for another, even in hunger, so a 
varying appetite appears in connection 
with the soul hunger of curiosity. It is 
strongest in the direction of that in which 
the life is naturally interested at any given 
time. 

The interests of early childhood are 
primarily in things which exhibit or sug¬ 
gest activity and in simplest relationships, 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


61 


found in the little world bounded by 
home, neighborhood, Kindergarten and 
Sunday School. Nature makes strong 
appeal, not on the aesthetic side of tint 
and shadow, but through the charm of her 
multiform movements and family life 
akin to the child’s. The bird’s nest 
fascinates because there is connected 
with it the story of the building and the 
hungry little brood it sheltered. Tales of 
animals, fairies and real folk, busy in 
simple and familiar occupations hold him 
entranced, and he will watch with rapt 
attention the performance of most com¬ 
mon tasks. It is noteworthy that his 
interest in all this is not so much in the 
end to be accomplished, as in the activity 
itself. Even in his play, the preparations 
are often more delightful and satisfying 
than the game which follows. 

All this has a deep meaning for one who 
is trying to help the little life in its unfold¬ 
ing. 

1. “Wise education takes the tide at 
the flood,” says James. These interests 
reveal the fact that in this period, in¬ 
struction should deal with things, not 


62 THE UNFOLDING LIFE 

with statements of ideas, apart from 
things, or, in other words, with the con¬ 
crete, not the abstract. 

2. The greater the knowledge of things 
gained while interest attaches to them, 
the greater the resources for clear, broad 
thinking as life matures. 

3. When instruction is in line with 
interests, attention and consequent learn¬ 
ing are assured. 

4. The child’s religious interests will 
be identical in character with the other 
interests of this period. He will not be 
interested in the Being or attributes of 
God, but God in His great activities as 
Creator and Wonder-Worker, and in His 
relation as Father. Jesus will make 
appeal, not in His discourses, but in His 
acts of helpfulness and power, and His 
love. 

The great law of teaching is here in¬ 
volved, that interest in and knowledge of 
the unknown can come only through in¬ 
terest in and knowledge of something 
which is like it. Paul says in Romans, 
4 ‘For the invisible things of Him since the 
world began are clearly seen, being per- 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


63 


ceived through the things that are made, 
even His everlasting power and divinity.” 

Therefore the first definite religious 
instruction which the child receives, must 
be upon spiritual truths illustrated in his 
own known world of interests. 

IMITATION 

The result of the efforts of curiosity, 
senses and activity is a constantly increas¬ 
ing store of ideas in the child’s mind, re- J 
lating to these things in which he is in¬ 
terested. As these ideas enter his mind, 
applying this term to the “intellectual 
function of the soul,” he immediately 
wants to act upon them, according to a 
law inborn that an idea always tends to 
go out into action, unless it is held back. 
Adults have fixed habits of expressing 
ideas that come to them, but not so the 
child. An interesting activity is always 
a suggestion to him to reproduce it exactly, 
if possible. This difference between habit 
and suggestion in action is illustrated in 
the case of a long-suffering kitten in the 
hands of a resourceful child. The sight 
will arouse in another child an irresistible 


64 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


impulse to try the same experiment, while 
it always leads his mother to attempt a 
rescue. 

This tendency to exact reproduction of 
activity is the instinct of imitation, and 
is a marked characteristic of childhood. 
As these words are written, a glance 
through the window discloses surveyors 
at work with tape and red chalk. Follow- 
ing in their wake is a five year old with 
diminutive string and piece of red crayon, 
laying out distances and taking measure¬ 
ments, in exact copy of his predecessors, 
a genuine “pocket edition” of the orig¬ 
inal. 

While such elaborate exactness char¬ 
acterizes imitation in this period of child¬ 
hood alone, the impulse to conform is 
never entirely lost. The desire grows 
more complex and general as the years 
go on, and from reproduction of definite 
acts, the life tries to emulate the spirit 
and achievements of its hero, and later to 
be in some harmony, at least, with public 
opinion. Brave, indeed, is the soul that 
dares to be a nonconformist in regard to 
the standards “they” have established. 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


65 


The results of imitation are profoundly 
important in character building. 

1. When a child re-enacts what he 
sees, he comes to a better understanding 
of its meaning. This is one purpose of 
the imitation of common activities in 
Kindergarten games. 

2. The idea which is acted upon be¬ 
comes an inseparable part of the life. 

3. Habit is the outcome of repeated 
imitation. 

4. Life grows like what it imitates. 

With these facts in view, the applica¬ 
tion to the work of nurture is too obvious 
for discussion. 


IMAGINATION 

The child is not content alone to imitate 
activities. He likes to transform objects 
and make over familiar situations. This 
he does through that power of his soul 
called imagination. 

The imagination of this period is ‘‘fancy- 
full,’’ crude, and unbridled by reason or 
will. The child lives in a world of make 
believe. He sees whole menageries in 
the back yard, and performs exploits 


66 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


worthy of a David or Samson. He gives 
soul to inanimate objects, and endows 
them with feelings like his own. He 
plays with companions of his own crea¬ 
tion, and peoples the dark with weird 
forms. Things are changed at will to 
suit his whims, the stick becoming the 
untamed steed and the rocking chair the 
storm-tossed boat. The magic of his 
alchemy may extend to himself, and make 
him for days another person, or even an 
animal. 

This world of make believe is as real to 
him as the world which is seen through 
his eyes, and often he can not distinguish 
between the two. Many a little heart has 
quivered over the punishment inflicted 
for “lying”, when willful misrepresen¬ 
tation was not in his thoughts. However, 
harsh treatment of a vivid imagination 
may result in real deception later on, for 
the child can not help “seeing things,” 
too wonderful to be enjoyed alone, and 
then, perforce, there must be deliberate 
planning to escape the punishment. 

This harshness also begins to raise an 
invisible barrier between the child and 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


67 


parent. It was felt by a little maiden of 
rare fancy, who said in a whisper at the 
conclusion of one of these marvellous 
tales, “But don’t tell Mamma.” The 
impassable wall between many a mother 
and daughter in later years, once consisted 
of but a scattered stone here and there. 

Passing by the play life of the child 
where the imagination has fullest scope, 
the question arises as to the meaning of 
this power in character building. One 
purpose stands paramount over every 
other. It is the “ideal making factory” 
of the life. From transforming sticks 
and chairs, the soul will one day pass to 
transforming memories and thoughts, 
putting away the unattractive features 
and investing the attractive with even 
more charm, through dreams of what 
might be. From constructing houses out 
of blocks, the soul will begin to construct _ 
ideals out of its experiences and visions, 
according to a pattern shown on some 
mount. 

As childhood recedes and manhood 
beckons, the soul unveils this ideal, fash¬ 
ioned in its secret workshop out of all 


68 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


that appeared most desirable, and with 
strange, magnetic power, it begins to 
draw the life after it. Worthy or un¬ 
worthy, the years to come will see some 
part, at least, of the ideal, a reality. The 
character of the imagination, therefore, 
becomes a matter of supreme concern to 
nurture. It will be healthy or diseased 
morally, according to the quality of the 
material supplied for its use. The two 
great sources of this material are every 
day experiences and the story. The 
meaning of these experiences to the child’s 
life has already been emphasized in various 
connections, and repetition is unnecessary, 
but the story holds a unique place in 
point of influence. Since it comes with 
deepest significance to the child in the 
next period of development, when im¬ 
agination is less mixed with fancy, its 
discussion will be reserved for that time. 

MEMORY 

The child has an unfortunate experience 
with a hot stove and tender fingers bear 
the cruel scar. Must some one always 
watch him, year after year, to save him 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


from a succession of bums? He is taken 
to school by his mother; must she forever 
accompany him to insure his safe arrival ? 
Is there no way of understanding a pres¬ 
ent experience except by passing through 
it ? Life would be an unsatisfactory thing 
indeed, if this were true, but the soul has 
the power of retaining past experiences in 
order that they may throw light upon the 
present. The business man does not de¬ 
liberately do again that which was dis¬ 
astrous before, for he remembers the past 
misfortune. The child will not tomorrow 
press his little burned hand against the 
heated iron, for he recalls the pain of yes¬ 
terday. This gracious gift of God to life, 
we call memory. Without it, there could 
be no understanding, no reasoning, no 
imagination, no knowledge, no growth. 

The physical side of memory is most 
interesting. On the covering of the brain, 
each in its own place, the images or im^ 
pression brought in by the senses and the 
activity are registered. So sensitive and 
susceptible are the brain cells during 
childhood, that these impressions are 
received as clay receives the touch of the 


70 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


sculptor’s finger, and under right condi¬ 
tions, they are ineffaceable. When the 
soul acts upon these images, they live 
again, and we say, “We remember.” 

Two important questions are suggested 
by these facts. First, what kind of im¬ 
pressions should we attempt to store in 
the memory during childhood? Second, 
how may these impressions be made per¬ 
manent ? 

To the first question, the child him¬ 
self makes answer through what he most 
easily retains and through his needs. 

Since he is interested and curious in 
regard to things, since he spends all his 
physical activity upon them, since he 
desires them and thinks about them, we 
would expect that things, together with 
experiences and ideas associated with 
them, would naturally fill his memory. 
Any observer of childhood knows that 
this is true. The memory of a little child 
is overwhelmingly for the concrete, the 
impressions through the senses and from 
what he does being far more easily re¬ 
tained than ideas alone. A child will 
recall the story of the Good Samaritan 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


71 


more readily than the isolated verse, 
“Thoushalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” 
The reward or punishment of an act 
makes a more lasting impression than the 
dissertation upon it. Since the concrete 
must be the starting point of thinking, 
it must come to his soul at some time, 
and, judged by every condition, this is 
God’s time for it. 

The child’s needs are also a guide in 
this matter. The soul is growing in every 
direction, intellectually, emotionally, and 
spiritually if properly nurtured, and mem¬ 
ory holds the constantly increasing food 
for its growth. Is it to be treated as a 
stockroom, where packages unavailable 
for the present are to be laid away until 
needed, or as a store-house supplied with 
nourishing food for the present? If 
memory is a stockroom, then it should 
be filled with definitions, statements, 
terms, facts, anything which may be 
needed sometime. This can be done, for 
the brain will retain the sound of the 
words, but meantime, what shall the 
child feed on? What shall he use? 
The soul can feed on or make use of only 


72 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


that which is at least partially under¬ 
stood. This means largely the concrete, 
for abstract statements can be understood 
only through the experience or reason, 
and the child has meagre resources in 
either direction. Only when a thought 
embodies what he has experienced, can 
he grasp and use it. 

Is it not the work of nurture to see that 
memory is provided with that out of which 
it can supply every need of the develop¬ 
ing life today? That, “Faith is the as¬ 
surance of things hoped for, the evidence 
of things not seen,” may mean much to 
his mature heart, but what if the child 
should be frightened tomorrow and need 
to have his budding faith strengthened 
from memory? Would not the story of 
God’s care over the baby Moses, Jesus’ 
care for the disciples in the blackness of 
the storm, with the words, “He careth 
for you,” if these were stored in memory, 
quiet more quickly the beating heart, and 
more surely increase his faith? True 
nurture will not starve life in the present 
to hoard for the future. Memory now 
requires all its store for immediate use. 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


73 


Later, after growth is well under way 
in every direction, memory not only can 
supply present needs, but it will also 
demand a surplus for future use. 

The second question, relating to the per¬ 
manency of these impressions, is answered 
in meeting the following conditions: 

1. A healthy, non-fatigued brain 
when the impression is made. 

2. Close attention. 

3. A clear, easily understood and force¬ 
ful presentation of the thing to be re¬ 
membered. 

4. The use of as many senses as pos¬ 
sible. When an impression has been 
given through eye and ear and touch, for 
example, it is more definite in the mind 
than when it has come only through the 
sense of hearing. 

5. A natural association of the new 
impression with others well known and 
interesting to the child. 

6. Immediate and frequent recall. 




/ 







CHAPTER IV 


THE PERIOD OF EARLY CHILDHOOD— 
Concluded 

THE FEELINGS 

A child receives a coveted toy and 
his face is aglow with delight. He is 
sharply reproved and anger or grief ap¬ 
pears. Another child comes to play with 
him, and he may assert that all his guest 
desires “is mine,” and tears, and even 
blows ensue before amicable adjustment 
can be made. And so through the hours 
of a kaleidoscopic day, the emotional 
pendulum keeps swinging from love to 
anger, from pride to humility, from 
selfishness to sporadic and angelic bits 
of generosity. What is the significance 
of it all in the life of the child? 

Before considering this vital question, 
shall we note some characteristics of the 
feelings in Early Childhood? 

They center about self, and instinctive 
feelings, such as hunger and thirst, pain 
and pleasure, fear, pride and anger, are 
75 


76 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


strongest. Love is present in its first 
stages, not the self sacrificing sort, but 
love given in response to love and atten¬ 
tion. The child’s feelings are easily 
aroused, fleeting, and usually more or less 
superficial. Abstractions, such as beauty, 
duty, responsibility, and relationships in 
general have but slight effect upon his 
.soul, and the lack of feeling in these di¬ 
rections is commonly expressed by say¬ 
ing that the higher feelings are not yet 
developed. 

The child’s feelings in response to re¬ 
ligious truth can not, therefore, be those 
of the adult. He will feel love for God as 
he feels it for his mother, because of His 
love, provision and care for him. God’s 
power and the mystery that envelops 
Him will awaken a response of awe and 
wonder in his soul, and absolute confidence 
that He can do anything. But this same 
power and majesty, carelessly presented, 
may call out fear, not the godly sort that 
is afraid of grieving Him by sin, but the 
physical fear that casts out love. He 
does not have the sense of moral obliga¬ 
tion to God, for that again goes into 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


77 


the abstraction of thought. His religious 
life begins in feeling, pure and simple, and 
his creed is in I John, “We love Him be¬ 
cause He first loved us.” 

Most interesting lines of discussion open 
out from the subject, but they are not 
pertinent to the chosen theme of this 
book. The only legitimate question is, 
“What is the work of nurture in connec¬ 
tion with the feelings?” 

Before this can be answered, the pur¬ 
pose of the feelings in character building 
must be clear. Then we shall know 
what nurture must do. 

No feeling has a right to exist for it¬ 
self. There is a task for it to perform, 
namely, to lead the soul to action. If 
unhindered it will always do this. The 
careful analysis of any action will reveal 
a motive power in some feeling, ranging 
from the lowest desires for self gratifica¬ 
tion to the sublime heights of love that 
denies self for the Master’s sake. Knowl¬ 
edge alone does not suffice for action. A 
man may be familiar with the claims of 
Jesus and even acknowledge them, but 
until he feels a great need of Him, he will 


78 THE UNFOLDING LIFE 

not become a Christian. The sermon 
may compel the admiration of the mind, 
but unless it move the heart no man will 
practice it. Jesus summed up his com¬ 
mands in “Love,” not “Know,” for He 
knew that loving meant God-like living. 
It is significant that the fruitage of the 
Spirit appears in the feelings of “love, 
C joy, peace,” before it can be manifest in 
the acts of “long-suffering, kindness, good¬ 
ness, faithfulness, meekness, self control.” 

This indissoluble relation between feel¬ 
ing and action gives deep meaning to the 
words of Dr. W. H. Payne, “At least the 
half, and perhaps the better half of educa¬ 
tion consists in the formation of right 
feelings.” 

The w ork o f nurture in connection with 
the feelings is now apparent. It jnust 
endeavor to develop right feelings in order 
to secure right actions and consequent 
strong character. This development is 
secured through repeatedly arousing the 
feelings, and giving them expression in 
action until they are habitual. 

1. How may the Feelings be Aroused ? 

Passing by all the physiological and psy- 




EARLY CHILDHOOD 


79 


chological processes involved, and using 
the term, feeling, as it is popularly under¬ 
stood, the law that governs its appear¬ 
ance may be stated thus: “A feeling is 
occasioned by the touch of an impression 0 
upon the soul.” With older people, these 
impressions may come from without or 
from a thought within, but with little 
children they come almost entirely from 
without. The sort of feeling aroused 
will evidently depend upon the sort of 
impression that comes, as well as the con¬ 
dition of the soul that receives it. This 
difference in conditions, or difference in 
lives as we ordinarily say, explains why 
the Sunday School lesson has such varied 
effects in the same class, or even upon the 
same child at different times. 

Keeping in mind the law that some im¬ 
pression must precede a feeling, true nur¬ 
ture asks, “In what way can these im¬ 
pressions best be given, that desired feel¬ 
ings may be aroused?” 

1. They are not given through com¬ 
mand. 

Common sense would recognize the 
absurdity of attempting to awaken 


80 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


anger by saying to a group of happy chil¬ 
dren, “Be angry.” But why is the ab¬ 
surdity not equally apparent in saying, 
“Be loving,” “Be sorry,” “Be reverent?” 
Yet this is a method on which countless 
teachers and parents place their depend¬ 
ence. Suppose, for instance, reverence 
be the feeling desired; a thought of God’s 
greatness and power and holiness must be 
given. If, to the sensitive soul of the 
child, the teacher bring the story of Sinai, 
or the story of Majestic Power as it is set 
forth in the 104th Psalm, or the glory of 
the Heavenly throne with the adoring 
multitudes, following with the words, 
softly sung, 

“Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts, 
Heaven and earth are full of Thee, 

Heaven and earth are praising Thee, 

Oh Lord, most high.” 

the result will be true reverence. 

2. Suggestion is a most effective way 
of conveying these impressions. 

Instead of saying to the child, “This is 
the thought you should have, and this is 
what you should feel, and this is what you 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


81 


ought to do,” he is allowed to draw mean¬ 
ings and have feelings of his own, for then 
they are genuinely a part of his soul, not 
something foisted upon him. 

But even though the application is not 
made, nurture will consciously present im¬ 
pressions intended to suggest certain feel¬ 
ings. The Sunday School lesson, the 
missionary story, the visit to the poor 
family, the song carefully selected, all 
fall in this class. Special mention should 
be made of the great effect upon the child 
in making attractive in another, the feel¬ 
ing desired for him. A single incident 
will illustrate this: A frightened little 
candidate for the Beginners’ Class and his 
stern mother stood one Sunday morning 
before the Primary superintendent. ‘‘He’s 
got to stay in here by himself today,” she 
said; “I won’t have such nonsense. Look 
at him, with his first trousers on! I’m 
ashamed of him! ’ ’ The superintendent did 
look and saw the new trousers, and in 
them the trembling little body, and a soul 
speechless with terror at facing for the 
first time, alone, the unknown experience 
of a great world, even though it was en- 


82 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


closed in four walls. There was no trace 
of relenting in the mother’s face, and any 
plea for pity was useless. But the new 
trousers gave a possible key to the situa¬ 
tion. “Why, so he has new trousers on!” 
the superintendent said. “I want to see 
them,” and very thoroughly and enthu¬ 
siastically they were inspected. ‘‘I didn’t 
know that he was so nearly a man that 
he could wear trousers instead of dresses. 
I am sure he will stay alone today because 
men do and are not at all afraid.” She 
waited. Gradually the little head lifted 
as the thought of bravery began to make 
its appeal. He put his hand into the 
hand of the superintendent, and without 
hesitation started on the perilous journey 
across the room to the Beginners’ section, 
where no punishment could have driven 
him a few moments earlier, and proud and 
heroic sat by himself through the hour. 
Such is the power of suggestion. 

Two points, however, must be carefully 
guarded in deliberate effort to arouse a 
feeling. 

1. Care must be exercised not to over 
stimulate feeling, as an excess beyond 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


83 


that which can be expended in action has 
an after weakening and reactionary effect. 
This has its illustration in certain methods 
of evangelistic work with children, where 
results are measured by their hysterical 
condition when the meeting concludes. 
Contrast with this the gentleness which 
breathes through the story of the Master's 
touch, as He took them in His arms and 
blessed them, laying His hands upon them, 
when He had said, “Suffer the little chil¬ 
dren to come unto Me.” 

2. It is as injurious to a child to at¬ 
tempt to force a feeling before its normal 
time, as to a bud, to pry open its petals to 
hasten God's processes. Even the Di¬ 
vine Child “grew.” “That is not first 
which is spiritual, but that which is natu¬ 
ral, then that which is spiritual,” is God's 
law of unfolding life. 

But these consciously presented impres¬ 
sions form only a small part of the sources 
of suggestion to the child. The count¬ 
less sights and circumstances of his every¬ 
day life all have a voice for him, and a 
feeling follows their message. 

Every mother who has suffered morti- 


84 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


fication over the unaccountable behavior 
of her child toward a guest, knows the 
sometimes untoward as well as helpful 
working of suggestion from personality. 
Atmosphere has the same power. “I 
don’t know what there is in your home,” 
said a visitor to her hostess; “I can’t de¬ 
fine it, but it makes me want to be good.” 
Music may be suggestive, aside from what 
it actually says. It would seem as if no 
sane superintendent would prepare for 
prayer by a two step song, or follow the 
lesson on, “The Washing of the Disciples’ 
Feet”, by, “Columbia, the Gem of the 
Ocean,” but it was done. It would seem 
as though no primary teacher could be so 
insensible to suggestion from objects, as 
to try to teach worship in giving by taking 
the offering through a hole in the tail of a 
jointed tin rooster, but that self-same 
rooster is no myth. 

The subject expands into endless rami¬ 
fications. True nurture essays the dif¬ 
ficult task of analyzing the impressions 
that come from suggestion—guarding 
against the harmful, and multiplying the 
helpful. 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


85 


3. Impressions may be given and feel¬ 
ings aroused through doing the act which 
would naturally result from the feeling. 

This is the reason why a reverential at¬ 
titude helps to arouse real reverence, and 
a smiling face and cheery tone actually 
bring cheerfulness in a case of the blues. 
Little children are so imitative that they 
quickly copy the outward manifestations 
of a feeling, and the inner state tends to 
follow This is further a reason for lead¬ 
ing them into acts of loving service, that 
love and kindred gracious feelings may 
gain strength through the reflex influence 
of the action upon the soul. 

One word should be spoken on the neg¬ 
ative side. Since each recurrence of a 
feeling strengthens its power, nurture 
will seek to avoid the conditions which 
would arouse wrong feelings. “But 
should not the child control himself?” 
some one asks. Instinctive feelings are 
stronger than the power of self control in 
the beginning, and life needs shielding 
more than testing. God says, “Fathers, 
provoke not your children to anger,” or, 
literally, “Fathers, irritate not your chil- 


86 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


dren beyond measure, but nourish them 
L fully in the instruction and admonition of 
the Lord.” 

2. The Expression of the Feelings. 

Every normal feeling tends irresistibly 
to express itself in action unless it is held 
in leash. The story of the poor family 
needs the addition of no impassioned 
appeal; the child is already wondering 
whether he can empty his bank for their 
help. If expression is denied to the feel¬ 
ing, it tends to die out, and continual re¬ 
pression means a lessening either in power 
to act or power to feel. “Sentimen¬ 
talists” have lost power to act except in 
tears or ejaculations when their emotions 
are stirred, and “hardened” people have 
lost the power to feel under ordinary stim¬ 
ulation. Therefore nothing is more fatal 
to vigorous development of the feelings 
of the child than to allow them to be dis¬ 
sipated without expression in the action 
they naturally suggest. 

But nurture will see that little hands are 
allowed to hinder by “helping” to make 
the beds, or dust the room or carry the 
package, not simply that love may grow 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


87 


stronger, but that in after years there may 
be the desire to lift the burdens in reality 
from wearied shoulders, for the higher 
feelings of life develop from the instinctive 
feelings, if they have proper expression in 
the beginning. Love that is almost bar¬ 
ter in early years, since it is bestowed for 
value received, if given constant expres¬ 
sion in acts of helpfulness, will become the 
self-denying love of later years. Love 
for self, which is so strong in a child, can 
be developed toward its manifestation of 
self respect, by using it at first in child¬ 
hood, “to help this good body grow both 
strong and tall.” Childish hate may be 
directed against wrong things, in prepara¬ 
tion for indignation against sin of future 
years. It must not be forgotten, how¬ 
ever, that in God’s economy every feel¬ 
ing, if properly used, has its work to do in 
character building in every stage of its 
development, so that even the foundation 
stones may be laid in beauty and strength. 

THE WILL 

The power of the soul to make deliberate 
choice of action, and unwaveringly to 


88 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


execute it, is undeveloped in this period 
of Early Childhood. The child does not 
balance reasons or desires. Instead, he 
acts impetuously and unthinkingly, as 
the feeling of the passing moment impels 
him. Often one desire so completely 
absorbs his mind as to obscure every¬ 
thing else, and he will make any effort to 
gain his end. His case is like that of a 
man who “sets his heart” on a thing, or 
who harbors an alluring temptation too 
long, until it overpowers him. This is 
the explanation of most cases of obstinacy 
and strong will, as is proven by the dis¬ 
appearance of the “will” when the mind 
is diverted. 

One of the deepest desires of every par¬ 
ent and teacher is that there shall in 
truth be a strong will as the life matures, 
and so its training is sought. But just 
what is meant by it? We know there is 
no separate faculty to be strengthened as 
the arm is strengthened. What can be 
trained? The only training possible is 
in helping the soul to form the habit of 
choosing to do the right thing, or, ana¬ 
lyzing still more closely, of following the 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


89 


promptings of the noblest feelings of the 
heart. 

The inseparable relation between feel¬ 
ing and action has been noted. If the 
noblest feelings can be made the strong¬ 
est, they will be followed. The previous 
discussion shows that their strength is 
increased every time they are aroused and 
acted upon, and this leads to habit in 
both feeling and action. The nurture of 
the will or executive power of the soul is 
seen, therefore, to be most intimately con¬ 
nected with the nurture of the feelings, 
and its work will consist in making the 
right course of action so appealing that } 
the child will desire and choose it for him¬ 
self, until it becomes habitual, and con¬ 
sequently, undebatable. Forcing him to 
follow it, secures the action; it does not 
arouse the feelings that would lead him to 
choose to do the act himself. 

An act compelled is like an apple tied 
to a fruit tree; it did not grow there and 
has no connection with the life of the tree. 

A fruit tree that can not bear its own 
fruit is worthless, and a life that does not 
reach the point of producing its own right 


90 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


actions, independent of human coercion, 
is a failure. The comparison may be 
pressed still further. No quantity of 
apples tied upon a tree will ever make it 
produce apples, and even so, no number 
of right acts imposed upon a child will, in 
itself, make him do right things volunta¬ 
rily. This can only come through strength¬ 
ening in his own soul the processes that 
lead to right action. The truth of this is 
proven in the case of thousands of boys 
who did the right things at home because 
they were compelled to do so, but when 
they left home they went wrong. The 
one who should have nurtured was too 
busy, or too thoughtless, to take the time 
to lead into strength and uprightness the 
thinking and feeling and choosing of the 
soul while it was developing. It was 
easier to say peremptorily, “Do this,” 
with the inevitable result, that when 
compulsion was removed character gave 
way because it was weak. 

But some one is saying, “That is a very 
questionable doctrine; ‘Let the child do 
as he pleases, if he don’t want to do the 
right, don’t force him.’ ” 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


91 


Such a deduction from the argument 
entirely misses the point. The child 
must do the right, but, in a nutshell— 
which is the stronger constraint—outer 
or inner? Which makes character surer, 
the voice without, saying, ‘You must,’ 
or the voice within which says it? No 
external power could have made Paul’s 
record of service, or Brainerd’s or Paton’s. 
All the force of the Russian government 
was powerless to obtain that which each 
Japanese soldier poured out upon his 
country’s altar in the fight for supremacy 
in Manchuria. These deeds are the soul’s 
response to the most irresistible power in 
the world—a consuming passion. It was 
such a passion, intense beyond earthly 
fathom, that led the Savior through 
Gethsemane to Calvary. 

Because this is so, the Heavenly Fa¬ 
ther’s effort to secure right action from 
His children is not evident in external 
compulsion. Through His favor and 
fellowship, the joy of His approval, the 
peace that passeth understanding, the 
“Well done,” the eternal reward, He 
endeavors to arouse love for Himself and 


92 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


what He desires, in order that His will 
may be chosen. 

According to this Divine pattern human 
nurture labors. At the very first, the 
parent must make choice for the child, 
but earlier than is usually appreciated, def¬ 
inite training may be begun. The lov¬ 
ing smile of the mother and her known 
wish, her approval or disapproval, her rec¬ 
ognition and encouragement, the knowl¬ 
edge that, “Whatsoever a man soweth 
that must he also reap,” gained through 
bearing the penalty or enjoying the re¬ 
ward of each choice, the right course made 
attractive in the story of some one who 
chose it, or, most magnetic of all, in the 
life of the one who is nurturing, all these 
will begin to arouse the inner constraint 
that compels, and with glad acquiescence 

the soul will say, “Necessity is laid upon 

^ >> 
me. 

When the life shall learn that the most 
blessed joy that inheres in right actions is 
not human approval but God’s favor, and 
for His sake, with face steadfastly set, the 
right is followed, even though shorn of 
all external attractiveness, the highest 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 93 

development possible for a soul has been 
realized. 

APPLICATION TO SUNDAY SCHOOL WORK 

The Sunday School is such an impor¬ 
tant factor in religious training that a 
special application of the foregoing dis¬ 
cussion to its methods and work seems 
wise. It is evident that plans can not be 
detailed, but only some principles under¬ 
lying the methods be suggested. 

THE CRADLE ROLL 

In the first department known as the 
Cradle Roll, nurture can be given by the 
Sunday School only as it touches the par¬ 
ents. Any Cradle Roll work that cul¬ 
minates in the sentiment of securing the 
babies’ names and calling them, “Our 
Sweet Peas”, has missed its purpose. A 
peculiar opportunity comes with the flood 
tide of new parental love. “If I had not 
been a Christian when my boy was born, I 
could very easily have been led to Christ, 
my heart was so tender and full of grati¬ 
tude,” said the father of an only son. 

The Sunday School will nurture its 


94 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


babes through choosing as Cradle Roll 
Superintendent, a consecrated Christian 
woman, trained in the school of life’s 
experience, who can come close to other 
mothers because she, too, has known the 
valley of the shadow and the sacred joy of 
a new born life in her arms. A unique 
opportunity is hers to lead the parents 
to Christ or into closer fellowship with 
Him, and to help them understand the 
meaning of the life He has lent them. 

THE BEGINNERS’ DEPARTMENT 

The Beginners’ Department will care 
for the years between three and six. 
Nurture will be concerned first with the 
teacher. 

The Teacher.—The child’s conception of 
Christ will be what he sees in the teacher. 
He can not conceive of any love or tender¬ 
ness or gentleness greater than appears 
in her. A mother came to the teacher of 
her little boy one day and said, “John 
was playing on the floor this afternoon, 
and all at once he stopped and watched 
me, and then said, ‘Mamma, I wish you 
were as much like Jesus as my teacher 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


95 


is.’ ” The lesson, the music, the prayer 
and all the differentiation of the day and 
place tend to elevate the teacher above 
those who share his daily life, and envelop 
her with an atmosphere more mystic and 
holy. She is connected not with clothes 
and bread and butter episodes, but wholly 
with the thought of Jesus, and stands by 
His side in the child’s thought and love, 
and if he love not the teacher whom he 
has seen, he can not love God whom he 
has not seen. Even the physical charm 
of the teacher will make his picture of the 
Christ more beautiful. Nurture demands 
above all else that the teacher of a 
Beginners’ Class suggest “One altogether 
lovely,” to the sensitive, imaginative and 
imitative soul of the child, for her message 
to him is ever silently, but irresistibly, 
“Be ye imitators of me as I am of Christ.” 

The Place.—The place of meeting must 
fulfill certain conditions to give proper 
nurture. 

Because of the restlessness of these 
years, it ought to afford opportunity for 
physical movement. Even if a separate 
room is not available, screens or curtains 


96 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


should make it possible for the children 
to change their position frequently. The 
separation will also remove the tempta¬ 
tion for curiosity to obtain satisfaction 
through roving eyes. The place should 
provide comfortable seating arrange¬ 
ments, for impressions carried within from 
strained muscles and tired limbs are far 
stronger than from ideas that the teacher 
gives, and these will consequently receive 
the attention. 

But it is not sufficient to plan for 
seclusion and comfort. Nurture thinks 
beyond and deeper than this. The child 
is gaining his first impressions of religious 
things during these years, and his ideas 
will be derived from what his senses give 
him. There is no way to give him the 
thought of the beauty of holiness, and the 
joy that the religion of Jesus Christ 
brings, except to make every thing asso¬ 
ciated with it as glad and beautiful as 
may be. Choice pictures, flowers, sun¬ 
shine, order, all mysteriously transmit 
their beauty to the child’s thought of 
God. The more attractive the visible 
things, the more magnetic the charm of 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


97 


the invisible. “Out of Zion, the per¬ 
fection of beauty, God hath shined/’ 

The Equipment.—The equipment is 
not to be a heterogeneous collection of 
things, and yet the child must be taught 
through his senses. A Bible which can 
be kept before the children and reverently 
handled, to teach reverence by suggestion, 
is of first importance. Little chairs, or 
an equally comfortable substitute, a 
blackboard and an instrument, if possible, 
will give good working capital. 

Since taste is forming at this time and 
every thing has an influence in determin¬ 
ing its direction, the beautiful pictures in 
black and white are gaining favor through 
their artistic execution and subdued 
coloring. To this equipment may be 
added special objects designed to make 
the facts of special lessons clearer—the 
sand table occasionally, or models. 
Thoughtful teachers are more and more 
convinced that while Kindergarten 
principles should obtain, the Kinder¬ 
garten should not be moved bodily into 
the Sunday School. Values, must be 
balanced, and over against the reasons 


98 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


which might be given for bringing in all 
the equipment of the week-day environ¬ 
ment, there is this great fact:—the child is 
to be taught that religion is the supreme 
thing in the world, and he can learn it 
only by differentiating it in a tangible way 
from other things. This means that the 
methods, music, material and beauty 
associated with it ought to make it dis¬ 
tinctive, and more attractive than any 
of the week-day surroundings. 

After he learns that it is the chief 
thing in the world, he can learn how to 
bring it down to the common things of 
life without sacrificing its supremacy, 
instead of dragging the every-dayness 
into it. 

The Program.—The program must be 
varied, because self control is weak, and 
attention will be given to one thing only 
so long as interest is active. Music 
should have a prominent place, provided 
it is meaningful, choice, and suggestive 
of the thought desired, in music as well 
as words. Since this is the rhythmic and 
imitative period of life, motion songs can 
be occasionally used, provided the motions 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


99 


are not mechanical and artificial. The 
foot notes which say that at 1 the hands 
should be clasped, at 2 they should wave, 
and at 3 be raindrops, miss the point of a 
motion song. Unless the child sponta¬ 
neously expresses the thought which the 
song suggests to him, the motions have 
no value, aside from a rest exercise. 

The entire program should be planned 
around the thought of leading the child 
into a genuine love for God. Nature is 
beautiful, but its place in Sunday School 
is subordinate to Him. The most ex¬ 
quisite song that ends with birds and 
flowers falls below the highest nurture. 
Love must be both aroused and ex¬ 
pressed during the hour’s session. Music, 
Scripture, the enumeration of His bless¬ 
ings, the joy over birthdays and new 
scholars He has sent, the lesson, the care¬ 
fully selected pictures and stories of 
what His love has done for other boys 
and girls unlike them, an atmosphere of 
gladness and reverence will kindle it; 
the offering service, the prayer, Scripture 
and music will express it. The sugges¬ 
tion from teacher, place, program and 



100 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


lesson combined, should be a great, won¬ 
derful God who loves little children, as 
well as a Christ who took the children in 
His arms. 

The Lesson.—The course known as 
“The Two Years’ Course for Beginners” 
affords the best subject matter for the 
lessons for the following reasons: 

1. Bible truths needed first in the life 
of a little child have been carefully 
selected and arranged in their logical 
order. 

2. As many lessons as are needed to 
make each truth clear and to fix it in 
memory are devoted to it. 

3. The setting for the truths to be 
taught is given in stories, not abstract 
statements. 

4. The same Golden Text is used for 
all the lessons teaching one truth, is 
simple, intelligible and, by repetition in 
connection with several lessons, can be 
fixed. 

5. The pictures accompanying the 
lessons are very choice both in theme 
and execution. 

Since the only ideas the child will 


EARLY CHILDHOOD 


101 


receive of the lesson must come through 
his senses and bodily activity, and since, 
of his senses, sight and touch make a 
clearer impression than hearing, large 
use should be made of them. Further, 
as this is the period of imitation of definite 
acts, the lesson should present forcibly 
and fascinatingly, an activity within his 
power to imitate. 

The end sought, as a result of the nur¬ 
ture of this period, is that the child may 
become truly a child of God, and never 
know a time when he did not love Him. 

This may be achieved, for the heart of 
a little child is open and peculiarly sensi¬ 
tized to the matchless story of Jesus 
Christ. When it is presented to him 
aright, he always responds in faith and 
love. In this response, the conditions 
upon which spiritual sonship is conferred 
are met, for, “As many as received Him, 
to them gave He the right to become 
children of God, even to them that 
believe on His name.” 



CHAPTER V 

CHILDHOOD—SIX TO TWELVE 

No abrupt change marks the transi¬ 
tion from the period of Early Child¬ 
hood to Childhood, but development is 
continuous and rapid in every direction. 
The larger social world, entered through 
school life, and the new intellectual 
world, revealed through ability to re: d, 
widen the child’s vision and develop 
possibilities hitherto latent, because un¬ 
needed. 

The Sunday School divides the period 
of Childhood into the “Primary Age,” 
from six to nine, and the “Junior Age,” 
from nine to twelve, basing the division 
as accurately as is possible upon the 
awakening of these latent possibilities. 
The development of this period will 
therefore be considered according to this 
classification. 

THE PRIMARY AGE—SIX TO NINE 

During these years the characteris¬ 
tics of Early Childhood remain in more 
103 


104 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


or less modified form. Physical growth 
is still rapid in all parts of the body, the 
brain reaching almost full size by the 
ninth year. Parallel with this vigorous 
physical growth is a mental growth and 
development equally rapid and many 
sided. Curiosity is as hungry as ever, 
still more eager concerning things than 
abstract ideas, and still a goad to active 
senses. The mind has increased power 
to retain what is given it, and about 
the ninth year enters upon its “Golden 
Memory Period.’’ The ability to reason 
is gradually increasing, though it is used 
more upon relationships between things 
than between ideas. 

The child’s feelings are still self-cen¬ 
tered, yet development of the social and 
altruistic feelings is apparent. Children 
enjoy companionship more than in ear¬ 
lier years, but the longing for others 
does not reach the intensity which de¬ 
mands the club and gang until later. 
A feeling of sympathy and desire to help 
must still be awakened by definite cases 
of need, plus the influence of parent or 
teacher, as the child does not yet know 


CHILDHOOD 


105 


life’s hard experiences well enough to 
read their meaning and give response to 
them of himself. 

If nurture has met its opportunity in 
the preceding period, the child’s love 
for God and confidence in Him have 
grown stronger. The Heavenly Father 
will be as real to him as an earthly ? 
friend, and His help a living experience. 
“How is it that you always have a per¬ 
fect spelling lesson at school?” a primary 
teacher asked of one of her boys. “Why, 
don’t you know that Jesus sits in the 
seat with me every day and helps me?” 
he replied. The teacher’s face betok¬ 
ened her surprise, and the child em¬ 
phatically reiterated, “He truly does 
sit with me and help me.” Would 
that God’s older children could live 
as actually in the Presence that was 
promised for “all the days.” 

Actions continue to be largely impul¬ 
sive, carried out according to the strong¬ 
est present desire, and though right and 
wrong are more clearly understood than 
formerly, they do not often determine 
an act unsupported by other considera- 


106 THE UNFOLDING LIFE 

tions. This is evident in the matter 
of obedience, whose strengthening into 
a habit is one of the most imperative 
tasks of nurture during childhood. Ab¬ 
stract laws and principles of right, so 
weighty in middle adolescence, have 
but slight influence over the child, un¬ 
less joined with them is a strong per¬ 
sonality whom the child loves or fears, 
and whose favor he desires to win 
through obeying. 

There are certain modifications of ear¬ 
lier characteristics, which demand more 
than a passing notice, because they 
necessitate greater change in the meth¬ 
ods of nurture. 

ACTIVITY 

Though the restlessness of the preced¬ 
ing period is still in evidence, more and 
more activity is becoming purposeful 
and willed. While the child continues 
to love activity for itself, he is more in¬ 
terested in what it will accomplish than 
formerly, but an end is not yet suffici¬ 
ently attractive in itself to hold him to 
an unpleasant activity for its achieve- 


CHILDHOOD 


107 


ment. For example, he enjoys both the 
weaving and the basket, the pasting and 
the scrap-book, but if pasting and weav¬ 
ing were laborious and difficult, he 
would not voluntarily go through them 
to obtain the basket or the scrap-book. 

It must be noted further, that activ¬ 
ity still expends itself more readily in 
the realm of the physical than the men¬ 
tal, though there is increasing pleasure 
in the quest for knowledge, if wisely 
directed. The Sunday School is begin¬ 
ning to recognize what the day school 
has learned, that the child both enjoys 
and masters a lesson which can be ap¬ 
proached through physical as well as 
mental avenues. In consequence, hand 
work is being introduced to aid in re¬ 
ligious instruction, as manual work in 
the public schools for secular education, 
with most gratifying results in both 
cases. 

THE SENSES 

More skill, more accuracy and more 
discrimination characterize the work of 
the senses than in Early Childhood. 
The impressions are richer in detail and 


108 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


meaning, because of the increased knowl¬ 
edge possessed by the child. It is a 
commonplace that we receive from any¬ 
thing in proportion to what we bring 
to it. The ear of the musician hears in 
an orchestra what the child or the adult 
without the knowledge of music could 
never detect, because he listens with 
more than they. The child can see in a 
picture or circumstance, and hear in a 
conversation or a song, what once he 
could not, because he brings a larger 
experience to bear upon it. Criticism 
of others in the home, the lapses from 
Christ-like living, the scenes of the 
street, things pernicious as well as help¬ 
ful have greater significance in charac¬ 
ter building than ever before. This 
gives still graver emphasis to the work 
of nurture in guarding these wide-open 
doorways to a hungry soul. 

Growing out of the fact that the 
senses are the greatest source of infor¬ 
mation to the child’s mind, the method 
of teaching by means of objects has 
arisen. Rightly used, there is great 
value in this mode of instruction, but a 


CHILDHOOD 


109 


serious perversion of its legitimate use 
has developed in connection with re¬ 
ligious instruction of little children. 
Though the discussion of this may be 
a possible digression, it seems necessary 
in order to safeguard nurture from a 
mistake. 

There are two helpful methods of 
using an object with children in the 
Beginners’ and Primary age. The first 
is to explain an unfamiliar fact, or make 
it clear. A model of an oriental house 
or curios from a mission field are ex¬ 
amples of this. The second use is to 
illustrate a fact. The flower is the vis¬ 
ible expression of God’s loving care; 
the table, heaped high with grains and 
fruits and vegetables at the Thanks¬ 
giving service, teaches as no mere words 
could the fact of God’s provision for 
our need. Objects used in this way 
require no reasoning power to make 
their meaning clear. It is only a mat¬ 
ter of perception. 

The use of an object, however, in 
order to deduce spiritual truth there¬ 
from for children with reasoning powers 


no 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


undeveloped, is a mistake. Instead of 
making the thought clearer to their 
minds it obscures it. Close examina¬ 
tion reveals the reason for this. A child 
is both imaginative and literal. Through 
his imagination he can transform one 
object into another object, as we have 
already observed, but in this case he is 
asked to transform an object into an 
abstract idea. This he does not easily 
do, since such transformation is made 
by reason, not by imagination. Further, 
the spiritual teachings are drawn from 
the abstract idea which the object is 
supposed to represent, not from the ob¬ 
ject itself. Manifestly, therefore, if he 
does not get the idea he will not get the 
deductions from it. His mind does not 
follow beyond the point where he can 
understand, consequently, his thought 
remains with the object as it literally is. 

To illustrate, take the familiar object 
lesson of a cup overflowing with water, 
used to teach the thought of God’s 
manifold blessings in the life. The child 
is asked to change the cup into the ab¬ 
stract thought of life, and water into the 


CHILDHOOD 


111 


thought of blessing. This is difficult, 
for it involves reason and deals with re¬ 
semblances which are artificial, not real. 
The child’s literalism, therefore, asserts 
itself, and the cup remains a cup and 
the water is still water, and while the 
teacher is drawing conclusions, the child 
is probably wondering whether her dress 
will get wet or how he can get a drink. 

The same principle obtains in regard 
to certain types of blackboard illustra¬ 
tions. The child is asked to change a 
cross into suffering, a crown into vic¬ 
tory, a red cardboard heart into life, and 
a picture of Jesus Christ pinned upon it 
into regeneration. He does not make 
these transformations until reason is 
more fully developed than in this peri¬ 
od. Lines remain lines, cardboard is 
still cardboard and spiritual deductions 
do not reach his understanding. 

The fact that an object or drawing is 
always interesting does not alter the 
principle at all, for being interested and 
being instructed are not necessarily 
equivalent terms. The lesson must al¬ 
ways be interesting, but it must also 


112 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


gain entrance according to the laws of 
the mind to be instructive. 

INTERESTS 

The interests of this period include 
those of the preceding period, but they 
are more diverse and far-reaching than 
in Early Childhood. They still center 
around the concrete, and especially phys¬ 
ical activity. Crude and amazingly 
heterogeneous collections begin to make 
their appearance in boys’ pockets and 
girls’ treasure boxes. Dolls are never 
so dear to their fond mothers as in this 
period. Games and active outdoor 
sports appeal to both boys and girls, 
those games being particularly enjoy¬ 
able which give the individual an oppor¬ 
tunity to shine. Real team play is im¬ 
possible at this time, since in honor each 
prefers himself. Any scepticism upon 
this point will be dispelled by listening 
to the modest aspirants for office when 
the positions in a football game are 
being assigned. The explanation for this 
lies partially in the instinct of rivalry, 
which arrays individual against indi- 


CHILDHOOD 


113 


vidual, all through the early years of 
life. When the social feeling which welds 
individuals into groups becomes strong, 
rivalry will appear between gangs and 
clubs rather than between individuals. 

A significant change occurs in connec¬ 
tion with that which the child desires 
to imitate. At first, definite acts fo¬ 
cused the most of his interest and aroused 
imitation, now, interest begins to attach 
itself to the actor as well, and the child 
not only desires to imitate the deed 
but also to emulate the doer. Out of 
this a little later comes real hero worship, 3 
an incentive to action than which life 
holds no greater. Another fact in con¬ 
nection with this is also significant; 
those whom he desires to resemble need 
not be in the home circle nor in his 
environment, as at first, but may be 
distant in time and place. This new 
interest in people whom he can not see 
lends added charm and value to Bible 
stories and, if told aright, they will do 
for his life what can be done in no other 
way so effectively. 

Surely Agur, the son of Jakeh, saw no 


114 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


eager little faces upturned to his, plead¬ 
ing, ‘‘Tell me another,” or he would have 
added to the things that are never satis¬ 
fied, nor say, ‘‘It is enough,” the hunger 
of a child for a story. Since hunger is 
always indicative of a need in the de¬ 
veloping life, there must be a reason 
for this craving. It is found in con¬ 
nection with the rapid development and 
requirements of the imagination. 

There are two ways in which a truth 
may be taught. One is through an ab¬ 
stract statement, such as, ‘‘Intemper¬ 
ance destroys the happiness of a home.” 
The other is through the concrete, or 
the story of a home blighted by liquor. 
The first appeals to reason, and can be 
understood only in the light of experi¬ 
ence; the second requires simply the 
exercise of a vivid imagination. Of 
reasoning power, the child at this time 
has little, but he has an imagination 
vivid, strong and hungry, eagerly reach¬ 
ing out for something to feed upon. 
The well-told story fully satisfies his 
hunger, and at the same time meets the 
greatest need of the whole soul, namely, 


CHILDHOOD 


115 


the placing of right ideals before it in 
such a way that they will be worked out 
into character. 

To accomplish this result three things 
are necessary: first, the thought sug¬ 
gesting the ideal must be understood; 0 
second, it must rouse the feelings; third, 
it must lead to action. The story meets 
every demand. 

1. It makes the truth concrete. 

The statement, “Love will endure 

hardships for the sake of Jesus Christ,” 
is only a thought in the brain. The 
story of Paul or Livingston brings the 
truth out of that intangible world, puts 
flesh upon it and the breath of life with¬ 
in, and the child can in imagination exer¬ 
cise his sense of sight, of hearing and of 
touch upon it. 

2. It makes the truth visible, and 
therefore to be grasped through the 
senses or imagination. 

A thought can not be seen by itself, 
but if lived out in the life of a person 
it may be seen by the physical eye, or, 
if mountains and centuries intervene, 
still by the eye of the soul—the imag- 


116 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


ination. When it is seen, the fact it¬ 
self is understood, though the reasons 
for it may not be comprehended. While 
no man may ever know why God so 
loved the world that He gave His only 
begotten Son, we understand that He 
does love us, as we see the Babe in the 
manger and the blessed Savior upon 
the cross. Only when a truth is so 
seen does it become real and, conse¬ 
quently, of any worth to the life. Here¬ 
in lies the need and the power of “Liv¬ 
ing Epistles,” not only in the material 
world, but also in the world of the 
imagination. 

3. When the truth is seen it always 
arouses feeling. 

A thought which is merely known 
does not move men. It is possible to 
read of a terrible tragedy with meas¬ 
ured pulse and indifferent heart, but 
if the reader was an eye witness, or 
allows imagination to picture it for him, 
his soul quivers in its presence. One 
of the greatest needs of our teachers is 
to see the Master among the hills and 
by the blue waters of Gennesaret, to 


CHILDHOOD 


117 


look into His face, to hear His voice 
till hearts burn. Then they will not 
repeat words, but, “Looking upon Jesus 
as He walked,” say, “Behold Him!” in 
such a way that the children will see 
Him also, and a great love for Him be 
born in their hearts, and a longing to 
follow. 

4. The truth that is seen and felt 
impels to action. 

? This has already been discussed in 
connection with the feelings, and an 
illustration will suffice at this time. 

A mission Sunday School was listen¬ 
ing to a talk on the fixedness of habits 
formed in youth, and to make it clearer 
the speaker said, “Boys, do they ever 
lay cement walks in this neighborhood?” 
Every eye was riveted on him, as they 
answered, “Yes!” “Did you know,” he 
continued, “that if you were to take a 
sharp-pointed stick and write your name 
in the cement while it was soft, it would 
harden and remain there as long as the 
walk lasted?” “Of course,” he hastily 
added, as a significant expression ap¬ 
peared on their faces, “no boy here 


118 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


would be mean enough to do such a 
thing,” but it was too late—the picture 
had done its work and the purpose of 
handing autographs down to posterity 
would be executed at the first oppor¬ 
tunity. 

Such is the power of the image or 
picture to lead to action. Only the 
Father knows how many sons have 
come home from the far country be¬ 
cause of the matchless story of the 
prodigal. Only He knows how many 
consecrated men and women are in 
Africa and China and Japan because 
they saw the heroes in God’s Hall of 
Fame. Surely this is why the Holy 
Spirit inspired Paul to write, “Whatso¬ 
ever things are true, whatsoever things 
are honorable, whatsoever things are 
just, whatsoever things are pure, what¬ 
soever things are lovely, whatsoever 
things are of good report, if there be 
any virtue, if there be any praise, think 
on these things.” 

5. If the imagination steadily hold 
the picture, some day the life will be 
like it. 


CHILDHOOD 


119 


It is impossible for the soul to look 
day after day upon anything without ^ 
unconsciously being changed into its 
likeness. Hawthorne has exquisitely 
portrayed the transformation of Er¬ 
nest into the image of the Great Stone 
Face, and, in so doing, has told the story 
of every life that gazes fixedly on its ideal. 
Herein lies the blessed secret of Christ- 
likeness: “We all, with unveiled face re¬ 
flecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, 
are transformed into the same image, 
from glory to glory even as from the 
Lord, the Spirit.” 

In the light of these wonderful possi¬ 
bilities growing out of “seeing the in¬ 
visible,” the oft-quoted words of Stan¬ 
ley Hall are most significant, “Of all 
the things that a teacher should know 
how to do, the most important, with- 
out any exception, is to know how to 
tell a story.” 

APPLICATION TO SUNDAY SCHOOL 
WORK 

The requirements of the Primary de¬ 
partment in regard to teacher, place 


120 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


and equipment are similar to those in 
the Beginners’ class, save that a song 
roll may now be helpfully added, since 
the children are learning to read. In 
the matter of instruction, however, some 
variation from preceding methods is 
necessary, owing to the rapid mental 
development of the children. 

I. General Program. 

In addition to the thought of making 
the service worshipful and joyous, the 
program must be planned with refer¬ 
ence to three important things: 

(1) The Truth to be presented in 
the lesson. 

This should be a guide to program 
building in the preceding department 
as well, but it becomes imperative in 
this and the Junior departments, since 
the truth to be taught changes weekly, 
and therefore must be fastened during 
one hour’s work. Memory in this peri¬ 
od depends upon the force of the im¬ 
pression rather than upon association, 
as in later periods, hence all songs 
and exercises should emphasize the one 
thought to be given in the lesson. This 


CHILDHOOD 


121 


does not require new songs and services 
weekly. It merely requires that the 
old songs and exercises be approached 
from the standpoint of the lesson, that 
which is pertinent to it being developed 
in each. 

The results of this plan are two-fold: 
first, a freshness in the program each 
week, even with familiar features, and 
second, cumulative emphasis upon one 
truth, thus fulfilling the conditions of 
memory, and therefore of nurture. 

(2) The Activity of the children. 

The increased mental ability will per¬ 
mit interesting exercises to take the 
place of some of the physical outlets 
for activity necessary in the preceding 
period, but they must be brief and com¬ 
pelling in their attractiveness. 

The use of motion songs is outgrown, 
especially with boys. During many 
years there has remained in memory the 
expression in the face of a boy, head and 
shoulders taller than any other child 
in the primary department, as he stood 
pointing to pedal extremities, not less 
than number fours, and singing, “Little 


122 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


feet, be very careful where you take me 
to.” The sentiment could not possibly 
have been wrung from him had not the 
superintendent been his mother. 

Hand work suggestive of the lesson, 
such as pasting, coloring, tearing, cut¬ 
ting and simplest writing for the older 
ones, is growing in favor as a means of 
utilizing the activity and impressing the 
lesson. An outline of the methods of 
this work is impossible here, but three 
words of caution must be spoken. 

First: Choose the time for hand work 
carefully. 

While it will give wise outlet for ac¬ 
tivity and aid memory, if used in the 
wrong place it will tend to dissipate the 
influence of the lesson. Even the past¬ 
ing of a picture when the feelings are 
deeply stirred could give them sufficient 
expression so that they would be satis¬ 
fied without further action. They ought 
to impel to imitation of the action in the 
story with all the intensity that has been 
aroused, instead of being expended in a 
mechanical way. In view of this fact, 
the proper subject of the hand work 


CHILDHOOD 


123 


would seem to be the lesson of the week 
preceding, and the best time for it, just 
prior to the beginning of the session, 
if that be of the usual hour length. This 
time is practicable even where the ses¬ 
sion immediately follows the church 
service, and it has three advantages. It 
will counteract lack of punctuality, will 
utilize activity at its most disastrous 
stage—the unoccupied minutes before 
the program proper begins—and will not 
crowd out from the hour any other train¬ 
ing equally important. 

Second: Remember that valuable as 
the hand work is in clarifying and im¬ 
pressing the lesson, it is only a shell 
containing the truth. Therefore, a teach¬ 
er who occupies a large part of the hour 
in this way is not giving the child suffi¬ 
cient spiritual nourishment. 

Third: This work must be raised 
above the level of similar week-day occu¬ 
pations. 

This may be done through emphasizing 
the fact that the child is making a book 
of Bible stories, and special care must 
be used to make it beautiful and worthy. 


124 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


A mission of help or cheer to some one 
else may also be held out as a climax 
to its completion. 

(3) The program must be planned 
with reference to training in habit for¬ 
mation. 

Though the latter part of Childhood 
is the habit forming period of life, 
pre-eminently, yet habits of Christian 
activity must be begun during these 
earlier years. The children in this de¬ 
partment are not too young to lay the 
foundations of regular and punctual at¬ 
tendance, bringing of Bibles, giving to 
church expenses and benevolences, in¬ 
terest in and gifts for missionary work, 
daily prayer and, under proper condi¬ 
tions, church attendance. 

II. Instruction. 

While special teaching must be given 
in connection with each habit to be 
formed, the supplemental work and the 
lesson constitute the principal subjects 
of instruction. 

1. Supplemental Work. 

Scripture for memorization in this 
period should be chosen primarily to 


CHILDHOOD 


125 


help the children in habit formation. 
Information about the Bible and stor¬ 
ing for future use belong in the next 
period of “Golden memory.” Verses 
that give the thought of God’s love, and 
incite loving obedience to Him and to 
their parents, and loving service to 
others, are fundamental and should pre¬ 
dominate. The Twenty-third Psalm and 
Lord’s Prayer will have real meaning, 
and therefore help for the child at this 
time, if carefully taught. A few of the 
great stories of the Bible, including 
those of Christmas and Easter, may be 
added, and some of the hymns of the 
church expressing God’s majesty and 
the thought of service. 

2. The Lesson. 

Every principle of nurture already 
discussed bears upon the presentation of 
the lesson. 

(1) The lesson must bring an ideal 
to the child in concrete form. This will 
be the truth connected in some way with 
a person. Where the lesson gives the 
negative side, or the absence of the truth 
in life, the positive side must also be pre- 


126 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


sented and made more attractive, since 
the child’s impulse to imitate, even when 
warned against it, is stronger than the 
warnings. He must always be sent away 
with something to do, rather than not 
to do. 

(2) This ideal must always be given 
in a story. When the lesson material 
is abstract, like the Epistles or Psalms, a 
truth to be taught should be selected 
from it, and then made concrete and 
living in some Bible story. 

(3) The story itself is the mainspring 
to action, not the application. 

The forceful, vivid and realistic pre¬ 
sentation of the story, made possible as 
the teacher lives in it, impels the child 
to imitation; the application, or “ought,” 
appeals to his reason and compels him, 
and action is always more hearty when 
impelled than when compelled. The only 
after touch upon the story which is help¬ 
ful to little children lies in plans for imi¬ 
tating the activity which has been pic¬ 
tured. Even this is not always to be 
done. Jesus left the most wonderful 
story He ever told with no words of 


CHILDHOOD 


127 


application, for they were unnecessary. 
He knew that every prodigal would feel 
a tug at the heartstrings and an impulse 
to go home. At the conclusion of the 
story of the Good Samaritan He merely 
said, “Go thou and do likewise.’' Al¬ 
lowing the children to suggest what they 
would like to do if they so desire, or 
making the suggestion indirectly by song, 
or prayer, or the teacher’s announcement 
of her own purpose will carry far more 
weight than any injunction to act, for, 
“The deepest spring of action in us is 
the sight of action in another.” 





CHAPTER VI 

THE JUNIOR AGE—NINE TO TWELVE 

The years we are now to consider are 
among the most interesting in all the 
period of development, and among the 
most exacting, as well, in the problems 
they present. These problems are re¬ 
lated, in the main, to the “new invoice of 
energy” which has come into the life, 
the social feelings, habit formation and 
hero worship, and knowledge and pa¬ 
tience are almost exhausted in their 
solution. 

A general survey of the period reveals 
much that we are already familiar with, 
together with certain new conditions. 
We find that some of the winsomeness 
and much of the demonstrativeness and 
dependency of earlier childhood are gone. 
The sense of approaching manhood or 
womanhood is beginning to stir in the 
soul and, coincident with it, a growing 
independence is manifest. While the 
child must still be under authority, the 
129 


130 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


wisest nurture will consult his feelings 
and wishes as far as possible, for just be¬ 
yond this period lies life’s crisis, and 
every bond of sympathy and confidence 
must unite the helper to the one to be 
helped as the stormy passage is entered 
upon. 

With all this growing independence, 
however, life is very far from possessing 
the marks of maturity. It is careless 
and care free, irresponsible in general, 
yet proud to carry definite responsi¬ 
bilities. There is delight in anything 
which suggests pre-eminence over others, 
such as badges, buttons and regalia of 
any kind, or public recognition and re¬ 
ward. Frankness almost to the point of 
brutality is a frequent trait, particu¬ 
larly of boys of this age, for they do not 
lend themselves as easily as the girls to 
the polite usages and subterfuges of 
society. This characteristic must have 
its counterbalance in genuineness and 
freedom from any affectation, especially 
a pious one, on the part of those dealing 
with the children, in order to win their 
love and respect. 


THE JUNIOR AGE 


131 


A marked literalism is also apparent, 
and instead of the delicately imaginative 
child of earlier years a matter of fact 
young person stands out with a desire 
for exact statement and, if need be, 
under such oath as, “Upon your word,” 
or “Cross your heart and hope to die.” 
There is a strong sense of honor con¬ 
nected with such asseverations, and woe 
betide the one who swears falsely or 
tinkers with the truth. 

There are certain conspicuous charac¬ 
teristics which demand a more detailed 
consideration, and the first to be noted 
is the energy. 


ENERGY 

The very sound of the word is indica¬ 
tive of the nervous force that dominates 
the life during these years. It is well 
nigh impossible for action to be noise¬ 
less or measured in this period, especi¬ 
ally during the latter part. The energy 
continues to be more vigorous in the 
physical realm, and active sports of all 
kinds are attractive. One of the greatest 
problems of nurture at this time, as has 


132 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


already been suggested, centers around 
the wise use of this energy in the home, 
the day school, the Sunday School and, 
most important of all, in the hours un¬ 
occupied with definite tasks, for habits 
are forming through its outgoing. 

THE SOCIAL FEELINGS 

Another striking characteristic of this 
period appears in the rapid development 
of the social feelings. No longer is the 
child content with one or two playmates, 
but he craves the companionship of 
several of the same age and sex. This 
desire finds expression in the coterie of 
bosom friends, the gang and the club 
so prevalent between the ages of ten 
and fourteen. The bonfire with its cir¬ 
cle of kindred spirits, the cave with its 
password and dark plottings, the street 
corner and recruiting whistle have al¬ 
most irresistible fascination. What one 
boy does not dare, the gang will attempt, 
and the composite conscience may fall 
far below 7 that of the individual. The 
sense of honor already mentioned is very 
strong among the members, and in ab- 


THE JUNIOR AGE 133 

solute loyalty to one another they stand 
or fall. 

These organizations exist among the 
girls as well as boys, but differ in the 
purpose for which they are formed, the 
girls organizing more as adults, while 
the boys’ clubs are overwhelmingly to 
expend energy, lawfully or otherwise. 

The dangers and opportunities grow¬ 
ing out of this strong tendency toward 
segregation can not be overestimated. 

A walk along a city street in the evening 
reveals the fact that the nurture of the 
sidewalk and the ice cream parlor has 
largely supplanted the nurture of the 
home on the social side. The table with 
the evening lamp—“the home’s light¬ 
house’’—and the family circle com¬ 
plete about it, are an almost unknown 
experience in the life of the average 
American child. In a recent conven¬ 
tion a speaker, who is in charge of a 
great penal institution filled with human 
derelicts, said he believed it to be as 
much a duty of the church to preserve ^ 
at least one evening a week sacred to the 
home, as to designate another for the 
prayer meeting or preaching service. 


134 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


The home ought to be the center of 
the child’s social life. Why can not the 
lights and music and companionship 
there be made as attractive as the lights 
of the corner store, or billiard hall, or 
the sound of the street piano, which pave 
the way to the saloon and the dance 
hall later? That boys and girls will con¬ 
gregate during this period and the next 
is a law unchangeable as the laws of the 
Medes and Persians. Nurture asks 
whether the home does not furnish a 
better environment during this ener¬ 
getic, habit forming and irresponsible 
period than the comer store or the 
“gang?” It asks whether the society 
of those invited within its doors for a 
good time, under the sympathetic and 
watchful eye of the father and mother, 
is not apt to be more conducive to true 
character building than the society of 
the chance acquaintance with no cre¬ 
dentials save his skill in story telling and 
initiation into fascinating mysteries? It 
asks still further, in this age of hero wor¬ 
ship, whether the home should not erect 
the ideals of manhood and womanhood 


THE JUNIOR AGE 


135 


through example, through books, through 
honored guests who have achieved true 
distinction instead of delegating this 
privilege to the group around the bon¬ 
fire or the man who gathers the admir¬ 
ing circle to listen to the salacious tale? 
The home which provides for this social 
craving within its sheltering walls, blend¬ 
ing the faces of father and mother with 
those of companions in the most joyous 
of good times, and, after the evening 
altar, when the lights are darkened, 
knows that each pillow is pressed by its 
own pure face, that home is a bulwark 
of the nation and the ante chamber to 
one of God’s many mansions. 

May God have pity on the thousands 
of children who live in houses, but are 
homeless. 


HERO WORSHIP 

In this new interest in his fellows, all 
figures do not stand out in equal pro¬ 
portion against the child’s horizon. Some 
loom very high, and in the inner cham¬ 
ber of the soul, incense is burning at their 
shrine. Out of the earlier interest in 


136 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


people, and desire to imitate their ac¬ 
tions, there begins to emerge the great 
passion of hero worship with all its 
power in shaping ideals and determining 
character. If it be true, indeed, that 
life grows like what it gazes fixedly upon, 
then nurture has here an important work. 

The hero of any period must inevit¬ 
ably embody that which the life most 
admires at the time, hence physical 
strength and skill, courage and daring 
will be prominent factors in a boy’s 
hero in this period. This hero may be, 
perchance, the physical director of the 
Y. M. C. A., the champion baseball or 
football player, an explorer or adven¬ 
turer, a desperado, or—happy case—a 
father who has not forgotten how to 
swim and fish and hunt and play ball. 
A boy always longs to place his father 
on the throne of his heart, if he is given 
a chance, but the fathers who covet 
v that place enough to pay the price for it 
are too few. 

A hard working mechanic said to a 
friend, “I made up my mind I would 
rather have a backache when my boys 


THE JUNIOR AGE 


137 


were little than a heartache later on,” 
and so no day’s task was so heavy, no 
toil so exhausting that when he came 
home at night his two boys could not 
claim him. The cramped muscles would 
unlimber behind the bat, the tired limbs 
would forget their weariness in the 
jaunt that had been planned with father, 
and during the hours of freedom the 
three were chums in sports, in interests, 
in confidence. They say there is no 
more beautiful sight in that town today 
than two stalwart, manly fellows arm 
in arm with the father, who counts it 
the joy and pride of his life to have 
mounted the hero’s throne in the hearts 
of his sons. 

While boys always choose a man as 
their hero, girls may choose either the 
masculine or feminine character. They 
are still near enough Nature’s heart to 
glory in wildness and abandon, and the 
subtle delicacy of true womanhood has 
not the charm for them now it will have 
later. Yet it is part of the priceless 
dower of motherhood to so share in the 
daughter’s life through sympathy and 


138 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


understanding that, to “be like mother” 
will embody all the aspirations of a girl¬ 
ish heart. 


“the reading craze” 

The flame of hero worship is fed from 
two sources—the life of some one near 
to the child and the passionate delight 
in reading which characterizes the years 
from about ten to fifteen and is especi¬ 
ally marked from twelve to fourteen. 
The choice of books will naturally be 
governed by the strongest interests. We 
are not surprised, therefore, that every 
page must teem with life and chronicle 
some achievement, preferably in the 
physical realm, for in the thought of 
the junior, “Greater is he that taketh 
a city than he who ruleth his own spirit.” 

Toward the latter part of this period 
the sentimental novel, with all of its 
froth and perverted ideals of life, ap¬ 
peals to the girl, and it is an open 
question which is more pernicious, 
“Deadwood Dick and the Indians” or 
“Love at Sight.” 

When it is remembered that during 


THE JUNIOR AGE 


139 


these years the desire for reading is so 
great that it will be satisfied, surrepti¬ 
tiously if not openly, that the heroes 
and heroines strengthen ideals of their 
own type in the souf of the child, that 
these are the years in which taste is 
being formed, not only in reading but 
in living, nurture again has a great task 
outlined. “What is the best way to ^ 
keep a boy from eating green apples?” 
a prominent Sunday School worker often 
asks in a convention. The answer never 
varies: “Give him ripe ones to eat.” 
The child who has plenty of well-selected, 
wholesome literature will have no appe¬ 
tite for the baneful. Biography of the 
heroic type, exploration, adventure and 
charming romances like the “Waverley 
Novels” will help to lay sane and pure 
foundations of character. The mission¬ 
ary boards are now putting out books 
as thrilling and stirring in their situa¬ 
tions as any yellow-backed novel. These 
the children devour and the spiritual 
heroism makes its silent appeal along 
with the physical. 

This delight in reading makes compara- 


140 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


tively easy the formation of the habit 
of daily Bible reading. If the life is 
more than meat, then the time taken 
by the father or mother to select fas¬ 
cinating Bible biographies and stories, 
and tactfully to supervise the reading, 
is at least as wisely expended as that 
used in training a grape vine or sewing 
a lace edge on a ruffle. Is it not strange 
that there is such distorted perspective 
and false balance of values in regard to 
what is worth while? The cares of this 
world crowd out so many supreme things. 
Many a temptation in later life would 
have its antidote if the Holy Spirit 
could bring the needed Scripture to 
mind, but because some one substituted 
the lesser for the greater, solicitude for 
external appearance instead of inner 
furnishing, the Word is not there to be 
recalled. 


HABIT FORMATION 

The discussion of these marked char¬ 
acteristics of the life is given added im¬ 
port when we realize that these years 
are in the height of the habit forming 


THE JUNIOR AGE 


141 


period. All through Early Childhood 
and Childhood every act has left its faint 
tracing upon the plastic cells of the brain, 
and some of the markings are deep ere 
now. Just as water will follow its chan¬ 
nel rather than cut a new course, so 
activity will expend itself in the well- 
traced pathways unless prevented from 
so doing, and the same thought or stimu¬ 
lus will always tend to go out in the 
same action. No thinking is necessary 
upon these habitual acts which consti¬ 
tute “nine tenths of life”—they have be¬ 
come mechanical. Not only in the body 
does life acquire fixed habits, but also in 
the soul, in thinking, feeling and choos¬ 
ing. 

The seriousness as well as the value 
of a habit lies in its tenacity. No harder 
task ever confronts a life than to break 
up one habit and substitute another 
after the brain cells grow hard. The 
process requires not only that activity 
be directed away from the pathway that 
irresistibly draws it, but at the same 
time a new groove be traced upon the 
hard, unyielding cells. The task is diffi- 


142 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


cult beyond expression. This is why 
reformed men always have a hidden 
fear of lapsing into the former life. It 
is the call of the old pathway, traced so 
deeply in the brain. 

A mature woman, brought up to the 
strictest Sabbath observance, came to 
believe that “the Sabbath was made for 
man and not man for the Sabbath,'* and 
therefore essayed to act on that day 
according to her reason and judgment. 
The attempt was soon abandoned. 
“There is no pleasure in it," she said. 
“I am constantly fighting the old habits 
of my girlhood life, and they will not 
cease their call to me." This is what 
the wise king meant when he said, “Train 
up a child in the way he should go, and 
when he is old he will not depart from 
it." The whole tendency is to “ask for 
the old paths," that there “may be rest 
to the soul." A part of the miracle of 
conversion in later life appears in God’s 
power to trace new pathways when the 
brain is hardened, and to keep life in 
them, moment by moment, against the 
tug of the old. 


THE JUNIOR AGE 


143 


Three statements will crystallize the dis¬ 
cussion. First: The years up to twelve 
present two conditions for habit formation 
—plastic brain cells and action easily 
secured—as no succeeding years present 
them. 

Second: Habit formation, either right 
or wrong, is constantly going on, for 
every action leaves its impress and makes 
repetition easier. 

Third: Right habits may be formed 
as easily as wrong, if the task is defin¬ 
itely undertaken. 

Since the importance of these years 
is clearly evident, the method of habit 
formation may be briefly stated. First, 
secure the desired action; second, secure 
its successive repetition without a lapse, 
as far as possible. 

We have already learned that action 
is the natural result of an aroused 
feeling; therefore, nurture will endeavor 
to make the act attractive and appeal¬ 
ing where it can be done, that the cor¬ 
dial co-operation of the child may be 
had. Hero worship may aid here, the 
example in the home is imperative and 


144 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


future considerations begin to carry 
weight. Encouragement, recognition, 
new interest and new motives will all 
contribute toward securing repetition, 
until unconsciously the action carries 
its own constraint and outer influence is 
unnecessary. 

sf 

THE “GOLDEN MEMORY PERIOD” 

During the years from about nine to 
fifteen memory is in its most glorious 
period for storing away. In early life 
a fact is retained chiefly through its 
impress on the soft brain cells, for the 
power of association is little developed. 
In later life a fact is retained almost 
wholly through association with other 
facts, for the cells grow hard and an 
imprint therefore is faint. In the “Gold¬ 
en Memory Period” the fact has the 
double hold of impress and association, 
for the cells are still plastic and associ¬ 
ative powers are developed. The task 
and its haste are evident, for this dual 
condition never recurs. 

The brain will now receive everything, 
the abstract, that which is not under- 


THE JUNIOR AGE 


145 


stood, the uninteresting, as well as that 
which is pleasing. This is the drill 
period, when mechanical repetition will 
fix anything, regardless of the child’s 
desire to learn, and full comprehension 
is unnecessary. It is also the period 
of verbal memory, and that which ought 
to be memorized exactly should be given 
now. 


RELIGIOUS LIFE 

If nurture has cared for the spiritual 
life of the child, he will probably desire 
during this period to publicly confess 
his love for Jesus Christ. Even if he 
has not been so nurtured, every condi¬ 
tion in his life makes it easier now than 
it ever will be later to lead him to accept¬ 
ance of Christ. Though there comes a 
great spiritual awakening in adolescence, 
there is at the same time more in the 
life to oppose the decision for Christ than 
in childhood. The Christian life has 
not the meaning for him that it will have 
later on, spiritual vision is not broad 
nor deep, but if the child genuinely loves 
the Savior and wants to use his energy 


146 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


for Him, he is laying at the Master’s 
feet all he has now to give, and if Christ 
accepts the gift, the church ought to 
accept the giver. There is no greater 
crime against childhood than to bar the 
doors to these babes in Christ, nor, 
assuredly, can any act bring keener pain 
to the Passionate Lover of little children, 
who said, “Let them come unto me, and 
forbid them not.” 

APPLICATION TO SUNDAY SCHOOL 
WORK 

Perhaps a resume of the conditions 
which the Sunday School must meet 
in this period will make the situation 
more definite. 

The child is increasingly independent 
and outspoken, but easily won by love 
and confidence. He responds to respon¬ 
sibility, craves recognition, glories in 
show and regalia, wants to know the 
truth about things. He is a hero wor¬ 
shipper, abounds with energy and con¬ 
siders it his inalienable right to have 
fun with his chums. He devours books 
and magazines, retains what he reads 


THE JUNIOR AGE 


147 


and memorizes as never before. He is 
forming habits of life. He ought to be 
a sincere child Christian before he leaves 
the Junior department. 

Manifestly, in dealing with this period, 
the problem of nurture must find a large 
part of its solution in the teacher him¬ 
self. Three things must be vitally true 
of the one holding this responsible office: 
first, an abiding touch with God that 
shall mean Divine wisdom, moment by 
moment, for the exegencies of Junior 
work far outnumber the tread mill ex¬ 
periences; second, an understanding of 
and genuine sympathy with the life of 
the children; third, a personality that 
shall meet the conditions of hero wor¬ 
ship. Some day the church will give to 
every boys’ class, in this and succeeding 
periods, a trained Christian man to be 
hero first, and then teacher, for no boy 
aspires to be like a woman, no matter 
how much he may love her. But, though 
a woman may not reach up to a boy’s 
ideals along physical lines, nor should 
she attempt it, there is abundant oppor¬ 
tunity through outings, tramps, picnics 


148 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


and genuine interest in their sports to 
touch even that side of the life of both 
boys and girls. 

The social needs must be met through 
frequent class and department gather¬ 
ings, preferably in the homes, for the 
habit of reverence in God’s house will 
receive almost fatal counteraction in the 
average social gathering of this age held 
in the church. Organizations like the 
“Knights of King Arthur,” for boys, and 
the “Sunshine Club,” for girls, are to be 
highly commended because of their so¬ 
cial features, their appeal to the love of 
uniform, password and secrets, to hero 
worship and to activity through the 
ideals of life and service they make con¬ 
crete and alluring. 

Discipline of these independent, out¬ 
spoken boys and girls is easy if the teach¬ 
er will only lay hold of the heart instead 
of the coat collar, but, alas, the latter 
method takes less time. The world holds 
nothing truer and sweeter than the love 
of a child at this age, free as it is from 
all affectation and policy, and it is there 
in every heart, awaiting the touch of 


THE JUNIOR AGE 


149 


the teacher who can find the hidden 
spring. The contact on Sunday is not 
sufficient, however, to reveal it. The 
child must know through the letter, 
the call, the invitation to the teacher’s 
home, the loving sympathy in his life 
and interests that the teacher wants 
him, not his Golden Text and offering, 
and in this knowledge the magic spring 
is found. 

Besides the social life, the teacher 
should feel a responsibility in regard to 
what the children are reading. Papers 
like the Youth’s Companion circulated 
among the members, suggestions as to 
books in the Sunday School or public 
library, books loaned to the children 
and questions as to their reading may 
save many a soul from the slimy trail 
of the serpent coiled in the dime novel. 

A few suggestions may be added 
relative to the work in the School itself. 

PLACE 

The Juniors should have a separate 
department and place, for their work is 
distinct in character and methods from 


150 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


the Primary and Intermediate depart¬ 
ments. Maps and charts should be add¬ 
ed to the equipment, individual and 
personally owned Bibles, and where they 
can be had, tables for each class. 

ORGANIZATION 

For two important reasons the de¬ 
partment should be divided into classes 
and the teaching done by the teachers, 
presupposing they have risen to their 
privilege and are trained. First, the 
week-day shepherding becomes an in¬ 
creasingly serious matter as the child is 
broadening in his relationships, and no 
superintendent can give it alone. Sec¬ 
ond, the recitation must give large 
opportunity for individual work on the 
part of the pupil during the lesson, and 
this is impossible in a department taught 
as a whole. 


PROGRAM 

The program should give prominence 
to supplemental work taught largely 
through drills, including—during the 
Golden Memory Period—the Books of 


THE JUNIOR AGE 


151 


the Bible, passages, chapters, facts con¬ 
cerning the Bible and training in its 
use, geography of the Holy Land, the 
catechism where used and the hymns of 
the church. Public recognition in badges, 
certificates and roll of honor will aid 
in securing the desired work along this 
and other lines. 

Systematic and careful training in 
habits of Christian service ranks with 
the lesson in importance. Responsibili¬ 
ties in various committees through the 
week may be used to strengthen habits 
and utilize energy. Missionary heroes 
should be made as familiar to the chil¬ 
dren as their own personal friends, and 
there should be regular contributions 
to definite objects, not abstractions like 
“Missions” or “Benevolences.” 

Music of a martial type is greatly en¬ 
joyed by the children, also that suggest¬ 
ing action, but never the meditative, 
introspective sort. Great care should 
be taken to guard the voices from over¬ 
strain in loud singing, as irreparable 
damage may be done for all time to 
come. 


152 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


THE LESSON 

The Junior lesson should be prepared 
to meet the children’s interest in facts 
and love of a hero. They are not ready 
yet for truth in the abstract—it must be 
seen in a person. Instead of the story, 
as in the Primary class, there must be 
a mingling of vivid word pictures by 
the teacher and question and answer. 
The children should not be told to “ study 
the lesson,” for they do not know how, 
but rather have assigned to them one 
definite thing to prepare for the reci¬ 
tation. Make use of their love of read¬ 
ing in this connection. Use energy and 
hold attention by means of pad and 
pencil, written answers in the books 
they are making on the current lessons, 
map drawing, looking up references and 
a stereoscope if possible. Time before 
the session and in the social gatherings 
of the class can be most fascinatingly 
and profitably used in making pulp and 
sand maps and models of Oriental ob¬ 
jects. 

Toward the latter part of this period, 
a questioning in regard to Divine things 


THE JUNIOR AGE 


153 


may come, but a questioning unmixed 
with the doubt of later years. “And 
when He was twelve years old, * * * 
they found Him in the temple, sitting in 
the midst of the doctors, both hearing 
them and asking them questions.” With 
this desire to know reasons for be¬ 
lief comes the teacher’s golden oppor¬ 
tunity for strengthening the foundations 
of faith through history and the testi¬ 
mony of ancient monuments, where it 
can be adduced, through experience and 
through God’s Word itself. 

May nurture be so true to God and 
the life that the child shall leave his 
childhood and face the dawn of man¬ 
hood as that One of old with the eager 
heart and heavenly vision, “Wist ye not 
that I must be about my Father’s busi¬ 
ness?” 


CHAPTER VII 
ADOLESCENCE 

Between the quiet unfolding of child¬ 
hood and the full development of matu¬ 
rity, there lies a period so fraught with 
danger and so filled with opportunity, 
that it is rightly considered life’s crisis. 
A mistake at this point is more disas¬ 
trous than at any other, while wisdom 
in dealing with the soul never has such 
rich reward. 

In a general way, this period, known 
as Adolescence, extends with boys from 
about twelve to twenty-four, and with 
girls from about eleven to twenty-one, or 
from the beginning of manhood and 
womanhood to full maturing. 

A study of the conditions that obtain 
during these years clearly reveals the 
reason for their crucial character. 

1. It is an awakening time of new 
possibilities, physical, mental, moral and 
spiritual. 

We are already familiar with the peril 
155 



156 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


and opportunity that attend the first 
stages of any development, because the 
future direction and strength of the pos¬ 
sibility are then so largely determined. 
When we realize that the highest possi¬ 
bilities of the soul, as well as some of the 
lowest, are now unfolding, the gravity of 
the period is apparent. 

The changes that come with the soul’s 
awakening are so great, that often the 
youth becomes a stranger to those who 
know him best. Ideals, ambitions, feel¬ 
ings, thoughts and power only dimly, if 
ever, recognized in childhood take posses¬ 
sion of the life. A new conception of 
God is bom and a larger sense of respon¬ 
sibility to Him, to the neighbor and to 
the world. In these awakening possibil¬ 
ities are heard the siren voices of passion, 
society, wealth and fame and the clear 
call of self-sacrifice and duty, and the 
soul is bewildered, not knowing which to 
heed. Surely nurture is needed, for the 
choices of Adolescence are in all probabil¬ 
ity the choices of eternity. 

2. These are the years of the greatest 
susceptibility to influence. 


ADOLESCENCE 


157 


Everything that comes to the life now 
has an impelling force that it did not 
have in childhood. Life is in a state of 
unstable equilibrium, and a touch may 
move it. The influence of one book, of 
one friend, of one hasty word of criticism 
or passing word of encouragement may 
determine the future of a soul. 

3. During this period habits become 
permanent. 

The pathways traced through child¬ 
hood and adolescence become settled, 
the cells gradually lose power to change, 
and by the close of Adolescence, character 
is practically determined, unless a Divine 
power “makes all things new.” 

4. The influence of heredity is strongly 
felt during the early part of Adolescence. 

A child may be defrauded of his inher¬ 
itance in stocks and bonds and estates, 
but the bequest of tendencies to which 
his parents and grandparents and the 
long line back have made him heir, can 
not be diverted. 

There is danger of over-emphasizing 
the doctrine of heredity and lessening the 
sense of personal responsibility for con- 


158 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


duct. There is also danger of minimizing 
it, and consequently failing to give the 
help that many a life needs in its effort 
to overcome an evil inheritance. 

Heredity means simply a pull upon the 
life in a certain direction, because of the 
way those before have lived. It is easier 
to climb upward, if “the hands of twenty 
generations are reached down from the 
heights to help, than as if they reached 
up from below to drag down. ’ ’ But what¬ 
ever the inherited tendencies, any life 
may have the “antithetic heredity,” 
which is a part of its glorious inherit¬ 
ance in Jesus Christ. 

5. This period contains the largest 
number of first commitments for crime. 

Three coincident facts demand serious 
and careful consideration. 

First. The greatest number of first 
commitments occur from twelve to six¬ 
teen. 

Second. The greatest spiritual awaken¬ 
ings occur between twelve and sixteen. 

Third. “Girls are most susceptible to 
c influence for good or evil between eleven 
to seventeen, with the climax about four- 


ADOLESCENCE 


159 


teen, and boys from twelve to nineteen, 
with the climax about sixteen.” Is not 
the work of nurture plain? 

6. During the early part of this period, 
by far the heaviest losses from church 
and Sunday School occur. 

“While thy servant was busy here and 
there, he was gone.” Who was gone? 
A soul in its crisis, making eternal 
choices, easily influenced by a word, a 
look or a touch, in the grip of fierce 
temptations, but catching sight of Divine 
possibilities, needing help as at no time 
before or later, this is the soul that 
slipped away, in all probability, not to be 
brought back. You who let it slip, “How 
will you go up to your Father and the 
lad be not with you?” 

In turning to a more detailed consider¬ 
ation of Adolescence, we find the wealth 
of material so far exceeding the limita¬ 
tions of our space, that the study 
must be selective, not analytic. Only 
those conditions in the life, therefore, 
which seem most imperative in their 
demands upon nurture will be chosen for 
discussion. 


160 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


EARLY ADOLESCENCE 

The first period of Adolescence covers 
about four years, approximately from 
twelve to sixteen with boys and eleven 
to fifteen with girls, and is perhaps the 
most trying of all to deal with. 

The crisis in these years is a physical 
one, arising in connection with the func¬ 
tioning of new physical powers. Coin¬ 
cident with this the passions are born, 
bringing to many lives the severest of 
temptations. If ever a close intimacy is 
needed between father and son and 
mother and daughter, it is at this time 
of mystery and question, when the life 
does not understand itself nor the mean¬ 
ing of what God now gives it. The 
sacred confidence between parent and 
child is infinitely better than the best 
£ intended book upon the subject, which 
arouses further curiosity and kindles the 
imagination. When the home fails in 
nurture at this point, the Sunday School 
teacher must earnestly consider what of 
responsibility falls upon him. 

The rapid physical growth of these 
years is often accompanied by awkward- 


ADOLESCENCE 


161 


ness, due to the fact that the muscles are 
developing faster than the bones, mak¬ 
ing delicate adjustment impossible. 
There is painful sensitiveness over this, 
especially with boys, as hands and feet 
must be in the open, and they will easily 
construe any criticism or ridicule into a 
desire to be rid of their presence. 

“ * * * * And what if their feet, 

Sent out of houses, sent into the street, 

Should step round the corner and pause at the 
door 

Where other boys’ feet have paused often before; 
Should pass through the gateway of glittering 
light, 

Where jokes that are merry and songs that are 
bright 

Ring out a warm welcome with flattering voice, 
And temptingly say, “Here’s a place for the 
boys!” 

Ah, what if they should! What if your boy or 
mine 

Should cross o’er the threshold which marks 
out the line 

’Twixt virtue and vice, ’twixt pureness and sin, 
And leave all his innocent boyhood within ? 

Ah, what if they should, because you and I, 
While the days and the months and the years 
hurry by, 


162 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


Are too busy with cares and with life’s fleeting 
toys 

To make round our hearthstone a place for the 
boys.” 

There is a sense of pressure and nerv¬ 
ous excitement throughout the whole life, 
for the “invoice of energy” is not ex¬ 
hausted. Athletics afford physical relief, 
and slang, which is at its height from 
about thirteen to fifteen, offers somewhat 
of an emotional safety-valve. Experi¬ 
ences are never commonplace during this 
period, nor any individual ordinary. The 
strongest superlatives and most extrava¬ 
gant metaphors will scarcely do a situa¬ 
tion adequate justice, but nurture can 
afford to be patient, for “this, too, will 
pass,” and of itself, as life grows calmer. 

The feverish excitement is not at all to 
the distaste of the adolescent but, on the 
contrary, he courts it. The “reading 
craze” is at its height in this period, and 
books which give “thrills” are sought by 
both boys and girls. There is increasing 
necessity of wise oversight in the choice 
of reading when the mind is so inflam¬ 
mable and easily led, and the fact that a 


ADOLESCENCE 


163 


book is on the shelf of the Sunday School 
library is unhappily not always a guar¬ 
antee against the need of further parental 
inspection. 

The abounding energy of this period, 
when brought into conjunction with the 
enlarged vision of life, often gives rise to 
a restlessness and desire to leave school 
and go to work. This is augmented by 
the new money sense, which is strong 
about the age of fourteen, and leads to an 
effort to secure money to save as well as 
to spend. This desire ought to be met 
by a regular allowance or an opportunity 
for earning a stipulated sum. Its neglect 
is often the explanation for the breaking 
open of Sunday School banks or theft 
from household funds. 

But even the satisfying of this desire 
will not allay restlessness, and many a 
school-room seat becomes vacant in the 
early teens. If, instead of the harsh 
measures so often used, the boy could 
know he had not only the loving sympa¬ 
thy but also the pride of his parents in 
this harbinger of approaching manhood; 
if, in place of force, he were given choice, 


164 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


after all the considerations had been care¬ 
fully weighed; if he could feel the confi¬ 
dence of father and mother that he would 
do the manly thing because he is almost 
a man, he would rarely fail to meet the 
issue, for “at no time in life will a human 
being respond so heartily if treated by 
older and wise people as if he were an 
equal.” The result will be not only re¬ 
newed zest in the erstwhile hated task, 
but a new bond between parents and son 
that will help to hold him true when 
greater crises come. 

The strong appeal that sympathy and 
consideration now make to the adolescent 
is due to the new consciousness of self that 
has come to the life. It has many mani¬ 
festations. There is a welcome external 
one that is evident in care for the personal 
appearance. The days of maternal solici¬ 
tude for linen and ears come to an end in 
this period, and it is well, for the new 
standard of correctness is so high as to be 
unattainable by any one save the individ¬ 
ual himself. 

A new sense of pride in one’s family and 
position appears, and an aristocracy based 


ADOLESCENCE 


165 


on the accidents of birth succeeds the 
democracy of childhood. The girl who 
was sincerely thankful that she was not 
as others and assumed Pharisaic superi¬ 
ority because she had been born a Re¬ 
publican, an Allopath and, crown of all, a 
Baptist, lived in this period some years 
ago. 

This consciousness of self and of ap¬ 
proaching manhood and womanhood 
tends to make the life independent, and 
“any attempt to treat a child at Adoles¬ 
cence as an inferior is instantly fatal to 
good discipline.” In this super-sensitive 
state, a public reproof, even in the home 
circle, carries with it humiliation beyond 
expression, and inevitably arouses resent¬ 
ment and not penitence. “At no time in 
life does a word of encouragement mean^ 
so much, or criticism leave such an inef¬ 
faceable scar.” If those who touch a life 
through its unfolding only realized that 
what they sow of gentleness and con¬ 
sideration or of harshness and neglect 
when that life is defenceless and they are 
strong will be reaped when they in turn 
are without recourse and the child has be- 


166 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


come a man, would there not be more 
tenderness and love in some homes ? “For 
with the same measure that ye mete, 
withal, it shall be measured to you again/’ 

Another condition of great import to 
nurture appears in the increasing power 
of the social feelings over the life. Society 
begins to fascinate, and the problem of a 
High School education is complicated with 
the problem of secret societies and school 
dances. Friends are chosen not so much 
for real worth as for clothes, position, at¬ 
tractive features or, where there is no in¬ 
terchange of confidences between parents 
and children, for sympathetic understand¬ 
ing. The longing for companionship is 
God given and must be fostered, else the 
youth will enter maturity a recluse and 
self-occupied, but nurture must carefully 
deal with it while life is in a state of flux. 
The only course to be at all considered is 
a substitutive, not prohibitory one, giving 
opportunity for social intercourse under 
proper conditions. 

The development of the affectional side 
of the life during this period must be brief¬ 
ly noted. 


ADOLESCENCE 


167 


Hero love and worship are more pas¬ 
sionate than before. The object of ad¬ 
miration is usually some one outside of 
the home, often a favorite teacher who 
understands the heart of a boy and a girl. 
The patterning of the life after its ideal is 
most seriously undertaken, even to imita¬ 
tion of personal mannerisms. The priv¬ 
ilege and responsibility of being the lode 
star of an unresisting, unpoised life is 
tremendous, for this influence overpowers 
all others at the time. 

Strange manifestations of that which 
will later be love, holy and beautiful, be¬ 
tween man and woman characterize these 
years. At first there is a mutual repul¬ 
sion between the sexes. The boys are 
“so rough and horrid,’’ and as for the 
girls—the masculine sentiment concern¬ 
ing them was voiced by one young cava¬ 
lier in the words, “Oh, mush!’’ when his 
Sunday School class was asked if they 
would like to invite their “lady friends’’ 
to the coming class party. 

But this stage does not continue, and 
soon nurture must deal with notes written 
by foolish maidens and the first glamour 


168 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


of the great passion, “sickbed o’er” with 
callowness and sentimentality. There is 
no more perplexing problem in Adoles¬ 
cence than how to handle wisely this 
vernal manifestation of love. 

Blessed is the home where there are 
congenial and sympathetic brothers and 
sisters, and wholesome and absorbing oc¬ 
cupations. It is the vacuous, roaming 
soul which is a prey to the multi-tempta¬ 
tions of this period. If the tastes and 
wishes of the young people can be satisfied 
in the home, and a hearty and natural 
companionship of the sexes be welcomed 
in this healthy environment, nurture will 
be bringing sanest measures to bear upon 
the situation. 

Against this complex background, the 
necessity of a personal acquaintance with 
the Lord Jesus Christ stands out in start¬ 
ling relief. Though God comes to a soul 
in a marked way during Adolescence, 
nurture is taking a dangerous and often 
fatal risk in allowing life, as far as human 
effort can go, to enter its crisis without 
Him. The spiritual awakening of this 
period (to be considered in the succeeding 


ADOLESCENCE 


169 


chapter) would seem to be God’s call to 
larger service, rather than His first sum¬ 
mons to “Follow Me.” 

With the Master’s authority to let the 
children come, and with every condition 
in child life God prepared for their coming, 
there is no tenable position but belief that 
our Father meant every life to enter its 
period of “storm and stress,” in step with 
Jesus Christ. 

APPLICATION TO SUNDAY SCHOOL 
WORK 

Sunday School work during Adolescence 
and maturity lays less emphasis upon 
methods and equipment than in the ear¬ 
lier periods, and more emphasis on the 
personal relation between teacher and 
pupil. For this reason the preceding 
study, in so far as it interprets the lives 
of the boys and girls, applies directly to 
Sunday School work, for a sympathetic 
understanding is the key to the relation¬ 
ship. “There is no greater blessing that 
can come to a boy (or girl) at this age 
when he does not understand himself, 
than a good, strong teacher who under- 


170 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


stands him, has faith in him, and will day 
by day lead him till he can walk alone.” 
Far more than a pedagogue, the adoles¬ 
cent needs a friend in his Sunday School 
teacher, who shares his ambitions, knows 
his temptations, sympathizes with his 
successes and failures and, through it 
all, trusts him. This understanding and 
confidence, made long-suffering and ten¬ 
der by the love that never fails, will be a 
binding cord that can not be broken even 
by the most restless, wayward life. 

Because of the close relationship to be 
sought between teacher and pupil, other 
things being equal, it is wise for a class 
of boys to be taught by a man, and girls 
by a woman. The counsel of one who has 
passed through the same experiences and 
known the same temptations and difficul¬ 
ties always comes with especial helpful¬ 
ness. But the question of sex is not as 
vital as that of sympathy, nor the manner 
of previous experience as the manner of 
present love. 

The new consciousness of distinction 
will make the class work difficult, if there 
is any marked difference in the social 


ADOLESCENCE 


171 


standing of its members. The leader must 
be won to the right attitude in private, 
the appeal being based on personal feeling 
for the teacher and on the new ideals of 
relationship to others, which are beginning 
to take form. 

An organization of the class m this and 
succeeding periods is necessary for the best 
work. It should place definite respon¬ 
sibilities upon each member, either as 
officer or committee-man, for habits of 
Christian service must be solicitously nur¬ 
tured during these days. 

Frequent social gatherings are very im¬ 
portant. This is the age when the young 
people begin to think that “a Christian 
can not have any fun,” and it rests with 
the church and Sunday School to prove 
to them the contrary. The only convinc¬ 
ing proof is in experiencing the fact itself 
that the best times have a religious as¬ 
sociation, therefore a class party should 
be as carefully and as prayerfully planned 
as a Sunday School lesson. 

As these years are included in the 
Golden Memory period, supplemental 
work of more advanced type should be 


172 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


continued. Note books are helpful in 
amplifying and impressing the lesson, and 
brief essays upon pertinent topics add 
interest. 

The teaching itself must deal more and 
more with the relationships of life. To 
the majority of young people, the Bible 
belongs to an uncertain and remote past. 
The goal of work in these unsettled years 
is to help them see how the Book solves 
all problems of present-day living, and 
how Jesus Christ meets every personal 
need of the life. 


CHAPTER VIII 


MIDDLE AND LATE ADOLESCENCE 

The crisis of adolescence may be said 
to culminate about the years from fifteen 
to seventeen with girls, and sixteen to 
eighteen with boys,or the period of Middle 
Adolescence. During these years the 
feelings and the imagination are a great 
storm center, largely because of the rapid 
development of the altruistic feelings, and 
the enlarged conception of life with the 
new ideals it has given. 

Divine Wisdom in the order of the 
soul’s unfolding can be seen nowhere 
more clearly than in connection with the 
growth of responsibility for another. 
There must first be the self feelings in the 
little child, to help him learn his own 
individuality. When that knowledge 
comes, his life must be related to other 
lives, hence the social feelings awaken, 
yet it is for his personal pleasure that 
contact with others is sought. But God’s 

173 


174 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


plan for a life does not leave it self cen¬ 
tered, and under His touch through these 
lives a sense of responsibility toward them 
begins to be felt, and the realization 
comes that “No man liveth unto him¬ 
self.” Ideals which make the good of 
others first, enter into conflict with child¬ 
ish ideals which made personal gain first. 
A new impulse to forget self in loving 
service confronts the old self seeking and 
self love. Then the truth that “No man 
can serve two masters,” fastens itself 
upon the soul and decision waits between 
self and selflessness. In a struggle that 
often shakes a life to its foundations, the 
great choice is made and the soul yields 
itself servant to obey. Though a reversal 
of either choice is possible, it rarely 
occurs. This decision usually determines 
destiny. 

A new meaning and value in early 
nurture is revealed in the light of this 
struggle. If love for Jesus Christ has 
grown through the years in the heart 
of the child and the youth, a decision 
that means fuller allegiance to Him and 
greater blessing to the world is assured. 


ADOLESCENCE 


175 


If also during these years nurture has 
traced pathways of service, as an ex¬ 
pression of child love to God and to 
others, habit adds the influence of its 
tendencies to the choice of ministering 
life, and offers channels already prepared 
for the outflow of sacrificial love. 

The years preceding have not been 
utterly devoid of altruistic feeling, but 
adolescence presents marked difference in 
its manifestation, other than that of in¬ 
tensity. 

In early life, the willingness to consider 
others before self was usually aroused 
through the influence of some one else; 
now the longing and constraint is within 
the individual himself. Again, in child¬ 
hood, these feelings were called out only 
by some definite, concrete object; now 
they are stimulated by great ideas as well. 
Patriotism, humanity, suffering, duty, art 
and science have power to kindle flame 
on the altar of sacrifice. The more diffi¬ 
cult the task suggested, the greater the 
power of its wooing. It is doubtful 
whether any Christian life ever passes 
through this period without considering 


176 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


the ministry or the mission field, or 
whether every life does not at some 
moment long to go in quest of a Holy 
Grail. 

The issues growing out of this crisis 
are too momentous to leave with even 
the wisest human nurture. God Him¬ 
self must deal with the soul face to face, 
and lead it to this higher love and com¬ 
plete surrender. 

In early years He revealed Himself as 
( Creator, Heavenly Father and Friend to 
the loving, trusting heart of the little 
child. Now the time has come to make 
His glory pass before the soul. The 
marvels of creation in Nature, in con¬ 
stellation and atom, the infinities of 
eternity and space, the mysteries of life 
and death, His own holiness and justice 
and all the attributes of His matchless 
character, the unspeakable love that 
gave a Bethlehem and a Calvary to a sin 
sick race are revealed in new light and 
meaning, and the revelation is over¬ 
whelming. Existence that had been ac¬ 
cepted without question now becomes 
complex and baffling. God is no longer 


ADOLESCENCE 


177 


the gentle Lover and strong Protector of 
childhood days, but the great “I AM,” 
and in the terrible crystal of His pres¬ 
ence the soul is prostrate. With deep, 
added meaning the Cross stands out. 
Its message of salvation, not only to this 
soul conscious of its need, but to a sin¬ 
ning world, is heard anew; but with it 
comes the voice of the crucified and risen 
Lord, “If any man will come after Me, 
let him deny himself, and take up his cross 
and follow Me.” 

The answer cannot be returned in 
emotional love. It must be the love of 
all the heart, soul, mind and strength, 
bom in self surrender. If this be the 
soul’s response, the final triumph and 
glory of the life of self losing is pledged, 
not in the fluctuating efforts of a human 
will, but in the changeless strength of 
the Son of God. 

It is not to be wondered at that when 
a soul is in the throes of such experiences 
as these, it is a time of storm and stress. 
Yet often the struggle is carried on alone, 
in silence, for life becomes secretive. The 
open frankness of childhood is gone, and 


178 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


only to one in close sympathy will 
thoughts and feelings which sound foun¬ 
dation depths be revealed. It does not 
at all follow that because there is a phys¬ 
ical tie between two lives, that there will 
be union of spirit in this time of need. 
The tragedy of so many homes is dis¬ 
closed in the distance between father 
and son, and mother and daughter, that 
has widened almost imperceptibly through 
the years from lack of sympathy and con¬ 
fidence. 

This close relationship which admits 
to the Holy Place of the soul in its crisis 
cannot be lightly cast away, and as easily 
renewed at will. It is a growth of the 
years, to be nurtured patiently, prayer¬ 
fully, watchfully, steadily. A guest in 
the home of a busy physician noted the 
peculiarly tender and close relationship 
which existed between the father and 
his son, a splendid boy of about ten years 
of age. In answer to her comment upon 
it, the father said with moist eyes, “We 
are very close to one another. I know 
there is a time coming in his life when 
he will need a father as he has never 


ADOLESCENCE 


179 


needed him before, and I mean to be 
ready. I never take a long drive in the 
country, that I do not have him excused 
from school to go with me. He wants 
to be a surgeon, so whenever I have to 
perform an operation, I always have him 
help me in some way. Up to this time 
there is nothing that weighs for a minute 
with him over against an opportunity 
to be with me, and I am trying to keep 
his life so close to mine that nothing can 
ever come between us.” When that boy 
reaches his crisis and life closes up, his 
father will be shut inside with him. 
Is there any question as to the outcome, 
with a father and a father’s God within? 

If, in the busy cares of life, the in¬ 
timacy that God intended in the home 
has been lost, it may be found again if 
the price of its recovery be paid, but it 
is often a dear price, payable in the coin 
of self humiliation, sacrifice and tears. 

The need of this close touch with an¬ 
other is apparent in the unspeakable 
longing of the adolescent heart for under¬ 
standing and sympathy, for appreciation 
and recognition, for help in choosing the 


180 THE UNFOLDING LIFE 

life work, and for love that is patient 
and deep. Perhaps the greatest longing 
of all is to be trusted, to feel the strong 
grip of a hand and hear a voice vibrant 
with encouragement and assurance say, 
“I know you can do it.” If the greatest 
successes in reformatory work come to¬ 
day through loving confidence in the 
one who has started wrong, who can 
measure the energizing power of such 
confidence in a life already striving 
toward the best? 

The pathetic side of this craving for 
confidence appears in the distrust of self 
which is almost universal at times dur¬ 
ing these years. A great wave of am¬ 
bition and enthusiasm will sweep over 
the soul, and nothing seems too great to 
be attained, nor any obstacles unsur- 
mountable. As suddenly it will recede, 
the ideals become impossible, the individ¬ 
ual but an atom in God’s great universe, 
the sky grows gray and hope dies out. In 
the vacillation between energy and indif¬ 
ference, enthusiasm and apathy, self 
loving and self hating, goodness and 
badness, confidence and despair, the ebb 


ADOLESCENCE 


181 


and flow of the tide in the soul is revealed 
to understanding eyes. 

For this fluctuation of purpose and 
failure to reach its high ideals, stem 
sentence is passed at the inner bar of 
judgment, and though the censure of 
another is resented, the soul bears great 
scars of flagellation, self inflicted. The 
standard of measurement by which the 
life tests itself and others is a new con¬ 
sciousness that there is absolute right 
and absolute wrong apart from all ex¬ 
ternal coverings. The statements of 
others are examined, their actions are 
stripped of all veneer, profession and 
practice are balanced, and death sen¬ 
tence is passed upon the influence of any 
life that fails to meet the test. The 
compassion that remembers that we are 
but dust has no place in the heart as yet. 
Suffering will call out sympathy, but not 
failure to reach the mark. A life must 
ring true to God, true to its fellow men 
and true to the ideals conceived as be¬ 
longing to it by these self-appointed 
judges, if it is to be of any help to them. 
It is therefore not a question whether the 


182 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


professing Christian, be he parent, teach¬ 
er or church member, can indulge in 
doubtful amusements or uncertain prac¬ 
tices without injury to himself. It is 
rather, “Are these things included in the 
ideal of a Christian life, as it is held, by 
those whom I want to touch?” If they 
who bear the name of Christ exemplified 
more completely the ideals by which 
they are measured, would there be so 
many who question the reality of divine 
things? 

It is during the closing period of Ado¬ 
lescence, ending with young men about 
twenty-four and with young women 
about twenty-one, that doubt most fre¬ 
quently appears. It comes rather as a 
questioning and bewilderment to the 
Christian, and scepticism to the one who 
has had no experience of divine things. 
Spiritual truth is not accepted because 
another has said it is so, but each desires 
to know for himself the foundation upon 
which he stands, that he may have a 
reason for the hope that is in him. In¬ 
vestigation seems to show that at least 
two out of three pass through this period 


ADOLESCENCE 


183 


of intellectual unrest, young men being 
in the majority. 

Many causes contribute to this con¬ 
dition, but chief among them is the 
maturing strength of reason and will. 
The new power to think God’s thoughts 
after Him, to trace cause and effect, to 
understand subtle relationships, intoxi¬ 
cates the soul. Everywhere in the world 
around, the pre-eminence of reason is 
acknowledged. The atmosphere of the 
university and the college which sur¬ 
rounds the favored young men and 
women is an atmosphere of scientific 
accuracy, where reason applies the tests. 
The world of business, of finance and of 
statecraft all bow to reason,—why not 
the spiritual world, and then by searching, 
the soul attempts to find out God. As 
in the wisdom of God divine things do 
not yield up their treasures in intel¬ 
lectual investigation but in revelation, 
the thick darkness gathers. Even that 
which had been once known by faith 
seems strange and unreal from this new 
view point. It is a critical time for a 
soul when it is learning that in one realm 


184 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


reason does not go before, but faith. 
Any harshness or lack of sympathy on 
the part of another or evident disappoint¬ 
ment in the life is very serious at this 
point. The will asserts itself under such 
measures and from the pliant attitude, 
“I cannot believe what I cannot explain,” 
it takes the defiant attitude, “I will not 
believe what I cannot explain.” 

The marvelous dealing of our Lord 
with Thomas is a picture of His gracious 
dealing with every doubting heart, and 
ought to be the perpetual model for every 
one who attempts to give help at this 
time. When the Master stood before 
that disciple who said he would not be¬ 
lieve unless he had the indubitable proof 
of a physical testing, He spoke no words 
of censure, no words of His pain that 
Thomas had been so long time with Him 
and yet did not know Him in faith. 
“Jesus said, ‘Peace be unto you. Reach 
hither thy finger, and see My hands, 
and reach thither thy hand and put it 
into My side and be not faithless but 
believing,’ and Thomas answered and 
said unto Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ ” 


ADOLESCENCE 


185 


With like patience and infinite tender¬ 
ness, the Spirit deals with the troubled 
heart today. He makes the past days 
with God live again in memory, if the 
life has known Him, and the soul can 
not deny in its reason the reality of what 
it has lived through in its experience. 
He uses every Christian life that can bear 
the search light as an irrefutable argu¬ 
ment of the verity of the unseen. He 
brings the peace of God that passeth 
understanding, yet fills and thrills the 
soul as every service for Him is rendered 
even in the darkness. He calls through 
hard experience where reason can bring 
no comfort and the will is palsied, 
through the abiding unrest and longing 
of a heart that is feeling after God in its 
own way, instead of His, and through the 
drawing of childhood habits of love and 
trust. When at last, spent out with 
struggle and longing, the soul is willing 
to come back to the Heavenly Father as 
the little child who used to be, asking only 
to walk hand in His, in dark or light, a 
new consciousness dawns, clear, sure and 
absolute that, “Thus saith the Lord,” 


186 


THE UNFOLDING LIFE 


is more than reason, and the triumphant 
song rings out, “I know whom I have 
believed, My Lord and My God!” 

APPLICATION TO SUNDAY SCHOOL 
WORK 

The Sunday School touches a life just 
entering maturity at the focal point 
toward which all nurture has been tend¬ 
ing. Enriched by years of absorption, 
with ideals defined and channels of ex¬ 
pression traced, the soul faces an open 
door, bearing the inscript “Service.” 
It is that each soul may enter the door 
and give back to a waiting world its best, 
that nurture has brooded and guarded 
through the years. 

The great work of the Sunday School 
is to impel the soul to take this step, and 
taking it, say, “I am debtor.” This can 
not be done through any system of 
methods, neither are narrow interests or 
unexacting tasks sufficient to arouse all 
that the soul has now to give. The great 
sweep and mighty force of world move¬ 
ments are alone adequate for a soul in 
touch with God and infinities. 


ADOLESCENCE 


187 


There has never been a time in the 
history of Sunday School work when 
there were such far reaching, thrilling 
movements through which to appeal to 
manhood and womanhood as at the pres¬ 
ent time, and God’s Hand is not hidden 
in the matter. 

The Adult Bible Class movement, en¬ 
listing the greatest company of thinking 
men and women ever gathered for the 
study of the Word, is a call to open 
loyalty to the Book and to the church, 
that is winning recruits by the thou¬ 
sands. 

The great Teacher Training movement, 
with its exacting standards and high 
ideals of preparation, is leading the 
choicest young people to seek the holy 
service of teaching. 

The world encircling Missionary move¬ 
ments, the definite plan to give the gospel 
to every man, woman and child in this 
generation, the marvellous ingatherings 
already reported from the foreign field, 
the unparalleled opportunities to make 
richest investment of life in the waking 
Orient, these arouse the enthusiasm and 


188 THE UNFOLDING LIFE 

conviction which issue in prayers and 
gifts and pledge of Student Volunteers. 

In our own land, the ethical awakening 
with its triumphs for Temperance and 
civic righteousness, the great conven¬ 
tions and conferences held for the King¬ 
dom, the sweeping evangelistic cam¬ 
paigns with their trophies for Christ, and 
the new life stirring in the church, move¬ 
ments all, God initiated, God directed, 
throbbing with His Almighty power and 
revealing the oncoming of His triumph, 
these give the challenge and the inspira¬ 
tion to men and women, and response is 
coming in ever swelling volume, “Here 
am I, send me!” 

It is the crowning mission of the Sun¬ 
day School to relate these great interests 
to individual lives, and interpret for 
them the meaning in terms of love and 
service. To whom shall the task be giv¬ 
en? To the teacher of transparent life, 
who can hold the world and the one in his 
heart, who can read the signs of the times 
and the signs of the soul, and who has 
nurtured with the Divine One through 
the years, to him shall be given God’s 
crowning task with an Unfolding Life. 




MAY 13 1908 














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